Kindred
by dorkymako
Summary: Things between Daniel and Lauren seem fine at first but when a familiar face returns to town, things between them will never be the same. Will she move on with a new stranger of hers or die trying? The sequel to Forbidden.
1. Chapter 1

_Chapter 1_

_The moonlight illuminates a path in front of me in the never ending woods. I can feel the moonlight beaming down onto me, and I soak it in, embracing the feeling of it seeping into my skin. I take a look around me and see the trees in front of me also glowing with the moonlight. I take one cautious step onto the forest floor, taking in my surrounding. _

_I'm all alone in the forest; I take another look through the thick trees and notice a dark shadowy figure across from where I was standing. I squint to get a better look of the figure. As I focus more on the figure, I am able to tell that the figure is male from his broad shoulders and muscular build. I also notice that he has raven colored hair and his deep aqua eyes. _

_I realize the male figure is Daniel. "Daniel!" I shout to him but he doesn't respond, instead, he quickly runs off and I immediately take off after him. "Daniel!" I shout again, but I can see that he is long gone. That doesn't mean that I'm going to stop running, searching. _

"_Daniel!" I scream, "Where are you?" I can still feel the radiance of the moonlight, giving me more energy pushing me forward. _

_I try jumping over a ditch, but instead of making it to the other side; I fall in and hit the back of my head against a rock sticking out. I wince but when I touch the wound and look at my hand, I see that there is no blood that I expected to see. _

_There's a small box next to my feet, I bend over and pick it up. I take in the smooth finish of the wood and the engraving on the side. Slowly and cautiously, I lift the lid of the container. It reveals my blood stone necklace given to me by my mother when I was 12. _

_I furrow my brow in confusion. What would my necklace be doing in a ditch in the middle of the forest? Suddenly, hear the crunching sound of a tree branch snapping, and I dart my head up in the direction of the noise. _

_Standing on the edge of the ditch, looking down at me was Daniel with a devilish look upon his face. _

_I frown, and back away to the side of the ditch still having my necklace in hand. Why would Daniel be looking at me menacingly? "Daniel?" I ask cautiously, wondering whether or not I should be afraid or feel safe now that Daniel was here. _

_Daniel smiles darkly down to me, confusing me. "Help me out?" I ask warily as I outstretch my hand towards him. _

_He bends over and takes my hand, lifting me up from the ditch in one move. Once I'm out, I drop my box containing my necklace onto the ground and immediately wrap my arms around Daniel's waist. "Oh Daniel, I'm so glad you're here. Something weird is going on, I found my necklace in that ditch and I can't help but feel something is after me." _

_Daniel rubs circles on my back and shushes, "It's alright now," he whispers as he gently kisses my cheek and moves his lips slowly down to my jaw. "You're fine," he murmurs against my neck. _

"_What's happening to me?" I ask, as I feel something coursing through my veins. A burning sensation is in my legs and travels up my body, growing stronger. I wince, the burning starts to become unbearable and I scream. _

_Suddenly I feel something sharp pierce my neck, Daniel's fangs. I scream again in pain as I can feel him drinking my blood. I try pushing him away but it's not use. All I can do is try to fight him off with all my might. "Daniel! Stop! You're going to kill me!" _

_He doesn't do anything but continues draining my blood out of my body. Eventually I start hearing ringing in my ears and my vision slowly fades to black. Before I become overwhelmed with darkness, I whisper, "I love you, Daniel." _

* * *

><p>I wake up gasping and jolt up, making me sit up straight on the bed. I manage to prevent myself from screaming. All that comes out of my mouth is a whimper like sound, or at least I thought that's what came out of my mouth.<p>

Daniel wakes up immediately and also jolts up, "What's wrong?" He asks me, his voice filled with concern for me. When I don't answer him and just stare at him, he asks, "Was it another nightmare?"

He looked aggravated, but I knew it wasn't toward me. It was over the fact that I was having these dreams frequently now and he just wanted them to stop all together so I could actually sleep normally. I wanted them to stop too, but, Daniel thinks that they might be telling me something.

I nod kind of scared to say anything at the moment. After minutes of silence and Daniel patiently waiting for me to say something, I finally say, "Yes, it was another dream. Except this one is different than the other ones."

He frowns, "Like how?"

I sigh, "Well, instead of a wolf that is always in the dream, it was you," I pause and look over at Daniel, he tells me to go on, unfazed, "And I was running after you, I was shouting your name when I fell into this ditch. And in the ditch, was my bloodstone necklace I have at home. Then, you came back for me and lifted me out of the ditch but when you did, you didn't seem normal… like you wanted to kill me or something," I pause again for a second, "I felt this intense burning sensation all over my body and that was when you bit my neck and started to drink my blood."

I look over Daniel's face to see any type of reaction from the news that I just told him. But when I look at him, all I see is a blank expression, "Maybe the dream is trying to tell you something?" He suggests.

"I don't know. The dream seemed so real, like it was an exact look into the future," I sigh, "The way the darkness overcame me, it felt like I was dying all over again. It just felt all too real for me." I close my eyes and place my hand over them.

It's been 2 months since I died, every since then, I have been having dreams nonstop. It's partially why I have been spending the night with Daniel more often. Somehow, just being with him made the dreams stop for a short period of time.

Daniel wraps his strong arms around me, making me feel safe and secure. He kisses the top of my head and whispers, "It's going to alright, you'll see." He pulls away so he could look me in the eyes to tell me, "I will never hurt you, I promise you that."

Before I could respond, he presses his lips to mine lightly. Just as quickly as it begun, the kiss ends because I end up pulling away, which was so unlike me. Usually, Daniel is the one who ends up pulling away. I guess I just wanted to finally ask him something that I've been longing to for awhile now, "When are you going to take me to see my dad?"

Ever since Daniel told me that my dad was actually alive after all these years of thinking he died in that car accident years ago, I haven't stopped wondering what it would be like to see him again. Would he be excited to see me? Would he be the same person I knew back then? And could he explain all the dreams that have been plaguing me? A part of me feels like that he is the reason behind my dreams, as if he's trying to tell me something. I was hoping that I could also get the long awaited answers I've been waiting for.

Daniel shakes his head, "Not right now. It's too dangerous for you." He looks into my eyes and says, "I don't trust the guy."

I glare at him. How did he even know my father? And since when did he know him well enough to judge him. "What was the point of telling me about him when you won't even take me to see him?" I pull away from Daniel and start to get up from the bed, in search of my clothes.

Before I could even get off the bed, Daniel grabs me and gently throws me on the bed. Before I could try to get up again, he is on top of me and our faces are only a few inches away from each other. He smiles and whispers, "No more secrets right?" He starts to tenderly kiss my lips. I eventually give in and kiss him back, are lips moving in synch.

I whisper against his lips, "I hate it when you do that."

He smiles, "Do what?" He asks even though he knows the answer to that.

"When you make it so hard for me to be angry with you," I smile and glare at him while I put my fingers through his hair, it's so soft and I can faintly spell his Axe shampoo. It smells like mint, and I'm in love with it.

His smile widens, "It's a gift I guess," Daniel inches his lips closer to mine, "Isn't that why you love me so much?"

"Now you're getting too cocky," I simply say with a smile across my face. I place the hand that was weaving through his hair, on his cheek. "There are so many reasons to why I love you, it would take all day to tell you them."

"We've got all day," he whispers, "…And all night." Daniel winks, making me laugh. The thought of sleeping together was tempting, but, all I wanted to do right now was kiss him.

I waited for him to make the first move but he doesn't. He's waiting for me to make it first. Eventually, I give in to temptation and crush my lips to his. Not so long after, things start to get so heated between us that my head isn't thinking straight. So, I don't hear the ring of my cell phone at first until the phone rings again.

"Voicemail," Daniel moans. But I ignore him, and try to get Daniel off of me, and he just rolls off of me and lays on his back staring at me. I reach for the phone lying on the bedside table next to the lamp and answer it.

"Hello?" I question with a hint of aggravation in my voice for whoever is on the other end of the phone ruined the moment between Daniel and I.

"Um, Lauren?" I hear Rachel say, "What's got your panties up in a bunch?"

I smirk, "Nothing, now what can I help you with?" I ask, trying to rush the conversation so I can put my attention fully on Daniel. It doesn't help that Daniel has his hands all over me and rubbing me. I switch the phone over to my left ear to smack Daniel's hand with my right hand, "Stop it," I whisper with venom slightly in my voice so he gets the memo. He gets it, but he decides to ignore me.

"I'm going over to your house, are you home?" Rachel asks

"Nope, why?" I question as I hit Daniel again.

"I wanted to see you," Rachel says with a hint of sadness in her voice, "We need to catch up on our girl nights, so, I'm going to pick you up and then we're going over to your house for some girl time. Now, where are you?"

"Tell her that you're with your mom," Daniel whispers. I forgot that he had incredible sense of hearing, something that makes him more of a pain in the ass.

I cover the mouthpiece of the phone with my hand and whisper, "I'm not going to lie to my best friend." I declare, "And will you stop that?" I say as I push his hands off of me and this time he doesn't continue doing it. I uncover the phone and say to Rachel, "I'm actually with Daniel right now..." I say lingering.

She groans, "You guys are fucking again aren't you? And while I'm on the phone to?"

I giggle, "First of all, don't call it that, I prefer the term 'making love'. And second of all, we're not making love at the moment." I look over at Daniel and he's smiling while he wiggles his eyebrows and mouths, 'Key term: at the moment,' which makes me giggle even more.

"Yeah, at the moment," Rachel states, "Anyway, do you need picked up or is lover boy going to take you home?" I'm still staring at Daniel and he smirks when Rachel calls him 'lover boy'.

"I actually drove here so I'll see you in 20 minutes, tops. Is that enough time for you?"

"Yes my love," Rachel says sarcastically, "Now, hurry up please so I can get details. You know how much I love those."

I smile, "Alright and I already know this. I'll see you in 20, bye."

"Bye baby!" Rachel exclaims and we both hang up.

I put the phone back on the bedside table and turn over so I'm facing Daniel. We stare into each other's eyes for a minute when Daniel puts his arm around my bare waist to pull me closer to him, "Are you really going?"

I nod, "I do feel bad that I haven't been spending that much time with her lately. She is my best friend after all."

He smirks, "I thought I was your best friend too," he says jokingly.

I laugh, "That's true, but you know that's a whole different story. I don't think I would have sex Rachel if that was the case."

Daniel laughs, "You never know…"

I playfully smack him in the face but instead of pulling my hand back, I leave it there. Daniel places his hand on top of mine and removes it from his face, and holds my hand. "You know that I love you, right?"

"Of course I do. Do you know that I love you?"

"I sure hope so," he says smiling. He pecks the back of my hand, "I have something to give you." And with that, he gets up off the bed and finds his pants to put them back on, then, heads over to his huge wooden dresser.

I lift myself off and start getting dressed before he can show me what he got me. "You didn't have to buy me something." I say as I pull my final article of clothing on over my head.

"I didn't buy it, don't worry." He opens the top drawer and pulls out a small wooden box, sort of like the one in my dream but the wood with this one has more of a red color to it. Daniel walks over to me and sits down on the edge of the bed, taking my cue; I sit next to him on the bed. "I thought that I would give you something to wear so that in a way, I'll always be with you. I know that sounds kind of stupid but I just want you to remember me."

"Daniel," I whisper, "I would never forget you, you know that."

"I know," he smiles weakly, "Do you want to open it?" He holds out the box in front of him for me to take.

I smile back, "Sure." I take the box out of his hand and place it in both of my hands. Until finally, I take my right hand to lift open the lid. I quietly gasp at what I see within the box.

It was absolutely beautiful. Within the box, was a antique looking long chain and hanging from the chain was a beautiful crowned framed pendant accented with diamonds with a lovely black cameo woman. "It's beautiful Daniel, thank you so much."

"It was my mother's actually. It's the only thing I have left of her, and I want you to have it."

I open my mouth to protest, before I could, he shushes me and takes the necklace from the box, "Turn around." I do what he says as he places the necklace in front of me, I can feel the cold of the metal against my collarbone. I sweep my hair to the side and lift it so it's out of the way. Daniel puts the chain around the back of my neck and I hear the snapping of it being clasped.

I let down my hair and smile towards Daniel. When he smiles back, I say, "You should take it back." I start to place my hands on the nape of my neck to remove it but Daniel takes my hands into his.

"No," he says firmly, "It's special to me and you deserve to have it. I know that you won't let anything happen to it, just promise me that you won't ever take it off."

I look down to our intertwined hands. "I promise," I whisper to him as I lean towards him and softly kiss his lips. The kiss wasn't long when I pulled away to say, "Thank you."

Daniel smiles, "No problem." I stand up straight and walk over towards the bedside table, "What are you doing?" I hear Daniel ask but I don't answer him. I snatch my cell phone from the table and put it in my front skinny jean pocket. I also grab my ring I always take off when I go to sleep.

I return to my spot on the bed beside Daniel, take his hand and place my ring in the center of his palm. He just takes a glance of it and immediately puts his attention back on me. Before he could ask, I answer, "It's the ring my dad gave me before he died. Or disappeared I should say, it's been important to me since then and I want you to have it." He glances at it again, and I smile, "It's not as nice as your mother's necklace but I just wanted to show you how much you mean to me."

Daniel just looks at me for a minute until he finally leans in to kiss me. At first, the kiss was gentle and sweet then it kept heightening with each minute. Daniel lays me down on the bed as I wrap my legs around his waist. I run out of breath and pull away, when I do, Daniel starts to suck the skin on my neck. I moan out in pleasure which causes him to do it more then he moves his lips to my collarbone and eventually on the other side of my neck.

I pull his face back to mine and we start making out again for what seemed like a short period of time. It wasn't until I heard the shrill of my phone's ringtone coming from my front pocket. Daniel and I groan at the same time as he pulls himself off of me.

Pulling out my phone, I see that I have a new text message from Rachel saying: _Where R U? _

I smile to myself and straighten up and walk towards the bedroom door, knowing that Daniel will follow me. Before I can even open the door myself, the door opens and all I see is a blur run in front of me towards the direction of the front door.

I smile and roll my eyes when I see Daniel leaning against the door, blocking my path. "I didn't know that this was a race." I sarcastically inform him.

"Well, it was and you lost." He takes hold of my hands, "And my reward is having you stay here with me for the rest of the day."

I roll my eyes again, "You'll have to take that up with Rachel, lover boy. I warn you though; it may be tough to win that one especially if it's Rachel we're talking about."

He laughs, "True, I guess Rachel wins this round." He wraps his arms around my waist, "But this is the only time she gets to win and tell her I said that."

I laugh, "I'll pass down the message." I tilt my chin upwards and press my lips to his. He reluctantly kisses back but before the kiss became intense, I pull away and whisper, "I love you."

Daniel smiles down at me and kisses the top of my head, "I love you too." He opens the door wide for me as I pull on my military jacket and head out of the door. I decide to be cute and blow him a kiss. Daniel grasps it and places it against his heart, making me laugh.

I unlock my car and get into the driver's seat, starting the car. Before I drive off, I pull down the visor and check myself in the mirror. I then take notice of the hickeys splashed all over my neck. I frown as I reach my arm in the backseat to grab a scarf. I wrap it perfectly so no one would notice them, especially my mother. She wasn't fond of hickeys, saying they looked trashy and that she would shoot me if she ever found some on me.

Putting the car in reverse, I back out of Daniel's driveway. I wave goodbye to him as I peel onto the road on my way to my house to face the wrath of Rachel for me being late for our girl date.


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter 2_

I pull into my driveway with caution, afraid that Rachel will be right there waiting to scold me. But, she isn't there so I enter my house safely and turn on the lights. When I unlock the door and enter, I see Rachel standing right there, causing me to scream.

Rachel bursts out laughing while I just glare at her and let her have her moment. When she finishes sounding like a hyena, I demand, "How did you get in here?"

She giggles and slowly replies, "The window," she jabs her thumb behind her to the big living room window near the background. "I got tired of waiting for you and Daniel to finish so I decided to make myself at home."

"And the way you did that was to break into my house?" I step inside the house to take off my jacket and hang it up on the coat rack as well as to take my shoes off to make myself at home the way Rachel did except less urgency.

Rachel notices the necklace around my neck, furrows her brow, and points to the pendant, "Where did you get that?"

I place my hand around the pendent to hold it against my chest. I blush as I say, "Daniel gave it to me before I left to come here."

"Ooo! Let me see!" She exclaims excitedly, and unclasps my hand from around the pendant to get a closer look at it, "It looks old and expensive." She looks up at me and smiles, "I really like it, Danny boy did a good job."

I laugh, "I thought he was 'lover boy'?"

"He was, now I want to call him Danny boy."

I give her a doubtful look, "You know he hates it when people call him Danny." He says it reminds him of the song Danny boy because of the song back then, people used to refer to him as Danny boy. Plus, he was so used to being called Daniel by people all the time.

"There is always room for change you know."

I shrug and tell her nonchalantly, "Take that up with him."

"I will," she smiles, "Let's go to your room." Before I could say anything, she bolts up the stairs and I immediately bolt after her.

"Why do you need to go to my room?"

"We're going to your room because we're going out, duh. And no offense babe, but you're not exactly the best person for choosing a presentable outfit." Once we get to my room, right away she goes over to the closest and goes through my dresses.

"Umm, where are we going exactly?" I was so unprepared and confused, but if Rachel was in the equation this was a typical feeling.

Rachel turns around and places her hands on her hips, "We're going to see a movie and have some dinner. And maybe go somewhere else afterwards…" She lingers, when she lingers it means it something that I wouldn't approve of. Knowing Rachel, it was something illegal or stupid… or both.

"Where are we going afterwards? And don't you dare lie to me Miss. Rachel Lawson." It was my turn to put my hands on my hips and give her a skeptical look.

"Well…" Rachel says cautiously, "I scored some fake I.D's today and I was thinking that we could put them in good use…"

My jaw drops, who the hell would give her a fake I.D., but more importantly, why would she even think about putting them in use? She couldn't be that stupid. "Rachel! We're NOT using those, and how the hell did you get them?"

"You know that weird kid Bobby? Well, he asked me if I wanted some fake I.D's and I said yes. I gave him a picture of me and you so he could make them, you'll thank me later." She smiles and hands the card to me. I just stare at her in disbelief.

I put down the card on top of my dresser, "Look, we better throw them away before we get caught with them or else we'll get in big trouble."

"Only if you get caught _using _and we're not using them. Yet."

I shake my head, "Fine, I'll keep it if it makes you that happy. But I'm never going to use it."

"You say that now, wait till a time comes when you need it for some midlife crisis, that's when you'll thank me for getting you one and that's when you'll owe me."

I laugh, "I doubt that."

Rachel turns back around and pulls out a purple cocktail dress that I bought a year ago for my cousin's wedding. "You're going to wear this with..." She bends down and pulls out my black stiletto heels with a little silver bow on the side, "These." She announces proudly.

I roll my eyes as I walk across the room and take the items out of her hands, "This nice for a movie and dinner?"

"We're having dinner at the finest place in town, we have to dress to impress you know," Her attention is brought back to my closest wear she pulls out my shimmering black cocktail dress, covered in sequins. She then takes out a silver stiletto heel. "I'm stealing your clothes by the way."

Before I could protest, Rachel walks out of my room and heads to the bathroom. "Thanks for the heads up!" I call out to her.

"No problem!" I hear her call back. I smile to myself as I remove my clothes and change my bra and panties. I slip on the dress and strap on my stilettos with ease. Once I find earrings to match my new necklace, I head over to see if Rachel was done getting ready.

I lightly knock, "Are you done? I still need to do my makeup and freshen up."

She responds slowly, "Um, yeah. Do you have any tampons? That's all I need."

"Yeah," I reply, "Below the sink, there should be a brand new box of them." I thought nothing about the tampons and their use until seconds later when I think about my own period. I count back in my head to when I should have had it and I figure out that I was supposed to have it 3 days ago. I've never been late ever.

I frown, wondering if I could really be pregnant. Daniel and I never used protection because we thought that vampires couldn't have children. But I'm not vampire which means I'm capable of carrying a child unlike a female vampire, their bodies frozen forever.

I start shaking and almost fall backwards down the stairs but I catch myself on the railing. There is no way I can be pregnant; I can't be, it's not possible. Maybe there was another explanation to why I was late. There has to be.

Lifting myself off of the railing I frantically knock on the door, "Rachel!" After a minute of knocking she flings the door open. She was about to bitch at me but she notices the look on my face and furrows her brow, "What's wrong?"

"Rachel, I'm 3 days late," I barely whisper. At first, I thought that she didn't hear me but I knew she heard because her jaw drops.

"Are you sure? You think you're- you think you're…" She can't even say the word and I don't think I can either.

My eyes start to burn with tears as I nod; I don't what I would do if I really was pregnant. What would my mother say? What will Daniel say? Will he still be with me if I was? My and I don't have enough money to raise a child.

Rachel pulls me in a tight hug, and shushes me. "It's going to be okay, I'm sure that you're not. It's okay." She rubs soothing circles into my back as I cry on her shoulder. "How about I buy you a pregnancy test? We don't have to go out at all. We'll stay here and just take the test."

I pull away from Rachel and wipe my tears away, "No, we'll go out tonight. I need it; maybe it will get my mind off of this. Then at the end of the night, we'll go to a store and buy one." I didn't want my situation to ruin our one of very few nights we have together. This could wait for a couple hours, plus, I wanted to have Daniel here when I took the test.

"Alright," Rachel says in defeat, "It's your call, not mine." She gives me a weak smile, "Now, get finished getting ready. Get hot and sexy for me and our date." She winks and walks away to give me the bathroom, making me laugh.

Once Rachel closes the door behind her, I look at myself in the mirror and wipe away the rest of my tears. When my eyes are dry, I grab the eyeliner and mascara off of the bathroom counter and just put the eyeliner on my top lid. I then brush the mascara through my top and bottom eyelashes. Feeling lazy and in a rush with my makeup, I just put on a rich chocolate colored eye shadow.

When I finish my makeup, I brush my teeth and put on my citrus scented deodorant along with citrus scented perfume. I finally finish getting ready and reach for my metallic hand purse when I think of something. I reach down under the bathroom counter and grab two tampons. Just in case I happened to have my period while we were out, but I highly doubted it.


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter 3_

Rachel and I rush into my house after our girl date and I head straight to the bathroom with Rachel on my tail.

It wasn't that we didn't like our time together, hell, after everything I had a really nice time. Rachel surprised me with a nice fancy dinner at Fancy, the places name is cliché but the food was great. Rachel ordered steak with a side of mashed potatoes and cooked snapped peas while I ordered chicken parmesan with a side of a salad. After our dinner at Fancy, we headed to the movie theater to watch The Vow but when we got there, they ran out of tickets for that showing time. Instead, we saw This Means War and I have to say that it was actually a decent movie, it wasn't horrible and it wasn't amazing just average.

Once the movie was over with, we went straight to the Walgreens nearby and picked up a pregnancy test for me. When we went to check out, the cashier looked at me with so much pity and shame, it made me feel so guilty. The lady was kind enough to give me a 50 cent discount; she said I looked like I needed a pick me up. As if 50 cents would make the situation less nerve-wracking. Nonetheless, it was nice of her to do.

Before I close the door to the bathroom, Rachel gives me the paper bag containing the pregnancy test. She gives me a warm smile and wishes me luck. With that being said, I close the door and set my hand purse on the counter. Pull down my panties and pull up my dress slightly.

As I wait until I have the urge to urinate, I sit and think about the maybe baby inside of me. I place my hand over my stomach, secretly hoping that there is a baby in there. That would mean that I would always have a part of Daniel with me.

Thinking of Daniel makes me wish that he was here with me to find out if I'm baring his child or not. He has a right to be here. I get up and pull my panties and pull down my dress. I open my purse and feel inside of it, searching for my cell phone to call Daniel. As if on cue, I hear my cell phone ring. I look to see who it is and I see that it's Daniel calling me.

"Hello?" I question.

"Hey," Daniel says, "I just wanted to check up on you and find out how your little girl date went." When I remain silent, he sighs and jokingly says, "You weren't checking out any other guys while you were out were you?"

I stifle a laugh, "No Daniel, I would never do that."

"I hope not," he says worryingly, "You're not acting like yourself. What's wrong?"

I'm shaking now, I'm so nervous to tell him. Will he still love me as much as I love him? Or will he kick me to the curb? "I-I have to tell you something."

"What is it?" He asks in all seriousness.

"Well, I…" I drift off.

He sighs, "You know that you can tell me anything right."

"I might be pregnant Daniel." I start crying, I couldn't take it anymore. I don't want to hear what he's about to tell me, that he's going to break up with me. The next thing I hear is a muffle on the phone and I think that he hung up on me, making me cry even harder.

I was about to hang up the phone until I hear Daniel's voice, "Sorry, I dropped the phone." He muffles a low short laugh. "Are you sure that you're pregnant?"

"I-I don't know yet. I'm going to take the test-"

"I'll be there in 5 minutes, I want to be there." he announces, interrupting me. "I love you, bye." With that, I hear the click of him hanging up.

Once I click the end button, I hear a light knock on the door, "Are you okay Lauren?" I hear Rachel ask me.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I say as I wipe away my tears. Maybe he's on his way to break up with me but if he was to break up with me, why would he tell me that he loves me? "Daniel's coming over," I announce as I open the door and step out of the bathroom, "He says he wanted to be here."

"So you told him?"

I nod, "I don't-" I was about to tell Rachel that I didn't know if I could do this until I hear the doorbell ring and a knock at the door.

Rachel and I share a glance and I rush down the stairs with Rachel right behind me to see who it is. Hopefully, it wasn't my mom; she wasn't supposed to come home until next week. She was at a business meeting in Florida, and was going to stay down there for a couple days for relaxation time. She deserved it.

I breathe out a sigh of relief and nervousness when I see Daniel on the other side of the door. Immediately, Daniel strides in and wraps his strong arms around me into a tight and safe feeling embrace. I hug his waist tightly and snuggle my head into his chest, trying not cry in front of Rachel and him.

Daniel and I stand there for a minute, just taking in each other in our embrace. I feel kind of bad for Rachel, having to stand there awkwardly while Daniel and I were having a moment. I pull away from him and give him a small smile, "So," is the only thing I can say at the moment.

He smiles back and replies, "So," He turns to Rachel and smiles when he asks, "Can we have a moment? It shouldn't take long."

Rachel smiles, nods, and walks up the stairs without saying or protesting anything.

Oh gosh, this is it. The moment when Daniel breaks up with me, I'm going to be a wreck. And right now, I'm not even thinking about how Daniel leaving me will affect me but the baby. If I really am pregnant, I don't want our child to not have a father. I know how that was like when I was younger and it sucked. I don't want him or her to be put through that.

Daniel turns his attention back to me but before he says anything, I ask remembering that he had that gift, "Did you manipulate her mind to leave?"

He frowns in confusion, "No? Why?"

"Just wondering," I say smoothly. Which is the opposite of I am right now, I'm going crazy on the inside. I'm trying to prepare myself for the words that will cause my whole world to crash around me. Even if I tried to prepare myself for this, I doubt that I could ever be prepared. Hell, Daniel is my entire world and in some ways I regret ever getting this close. I knew that if I became close I would eventually get hurt but with Daniel, he is so much different than any other guy I met and dated. I feel so drawn to him like he is mine and only mine. And now it has come to bite me on the ass.

The suspense is killing me, I would rather him just come forward with it and say it already instead of him just looking at me with that gleam in his eyes. Was he that happy to get rid of me? I groan, "Just say it already."

Daniel frowns again, looking totally and utterly confused, "Say what already?"

"You're going to break up with me aren't you?" Tears are starting to swell over my eyes as I shout, "I already know you're going to so just do it already instead of making me wait for you to say it!" I cover my eyes with my hands.

I hear his boots come closer to me then I feel his arms wrapped around me, "What are you talking about Lauren?" He starts to rub my back up and down. "I'm not going to break up with you."

I look up over my hands to see his face, "What?"

"I'm not going to break up with you," Daniel repeats, "Why would you think I would? I love you too much to do that to you. To break up with you just because you might be caring my child."

"But I thought that because I might be pregnant you would want to break up with me…" I linger.

He shakes his head, "I would never do that to you, and you should know me better than that. Even if you are pregnant, it wouldn't change the way I feel about you. Those feelings would just become stronger, that's the only thing that would change," He kisses the top of my head and whispers; "I love you."

I sniffle, "I love you too. I feel so stupid right now, I'm sorry for coming to conclusions like that." I pause before saying, "I didn't even know I could become pregnant."

"Well, we don't know for certain yet. And I didn't think it was possible either but nothing like us ever happens in the supernatural world so we would be the first ones to find out if it can happen or not. I should try and do some research on this."

I nod and smile, "You're getting ahead of yourself there Daniel. First we have to find out if we're actually having a baby to find out more about it."

Daniel smiles back, "Right, sorry about that." He takes my hand and leads me to the front of the stairs, "Shall we?"

I nod again and head up the stairs with Daniel not far behind. "Rachel!" I shout for her to come wait with Daniel.

She comes out of my room, "Are you going to take it now?"

"Yes," I head into the bathroom but before I close the door behind me, I inform them, "I'll be out in a minute. Love you both!" With that said, I shut the door, closing them off from what may very well change my life.

I open the bag on the counter to retrieve the pregnancy test but when I open it, I see two pregnancy tests. I don't remember buying another one. I just shrug it off, Rachel probably snuck another one to make sure that I am pregnant or not.

Once I get both of the tests out of their boxes, I set them down on the counter as I pull down my panties and sit on the toilet. In what seemed like forever, I finally get things going and I grab one of the pregnancy tests and put it in between my legs into the toilet bowl. Then I do the same for the other, I place both of them on a sheet of toilet paper as I wash my hands.

I take one of the tests and wave it around, wishing that it would work faster. Only 45 more seconds left. While I have my eyes glued to the test, I open the door and immediately Rachel runs over then Daniel. "What does it say?"

"I don't know it hasn't been a minute yet." Daniel just remains quiet but when I look up at him, our eyes meet and they tell me everything just with his eyes. Instantly, I know that we were going to get through this. Together.

I shake the test once again with my wrist the seconds feeling like minutes. Daniel, Rachel, and I stand there waiting patiently for the test to either show one or two pink lines. Until finally, something appears on the test and my heart races for my life could change dramatically with this test. I gasp at the sight of the pregnancy tests results.


	4. Chapter 4

_Chapter 4_

I gasp at the sight of the one little pink line across the screen, and then a smile of relief sweeps across my face. "It's negative," I whisper in a hushed tone, "I'm not pregnant!" I look up to Rachel and see her also smiling, but, when I look to Daniel, his expression is blank.

"Let's check the other one," Rachel commands. She bolts into the bathroom and grabs the other pregnancy test. She looks down at it as she walks back over to me. When she looks up she's smiling, "Negative." For evidence, she holds it up so I could see it and sure enough, there is just one pink line not two. Causing me to smile more.

I feel so relieved! I didn't want to bring a child in this world, especially my world. My world that consists of vampires and werewolves and whatever other supernatural creature decides to come into my life. I wouldn't let my child be exposed to all of that. But, wouldn't he or she also be considered supernatural? After all, he or she would have been half a vampire, wouldn't she?

Rachel pulls me into a hug, and I tightly squeeze her back. Over Rachel's shoulder, I look at Daniel and he's just staring at me with a blank expression on his face. I frown in confusion, shouldn't he be happy too? That I'm not pregnant, and shouldn't he feel relieved that maybe this shows that I can't conceive a child with him? That we didn't have to worry?

I mouth to Daniel, 'What's wrong?'

He just shakes his head, 'Nothing,' he mouths back. After a minute of looking at him, he mouths something else to me, 'We need to talk.'

Oh, maybe he just didn't want to show any of his emotions around Rachel. And he probably didn't want to say anything around Rachel. I nod to Daniel and pull out of Rachel and I's embrace. Giving her a weak smile, I ask her, "Can you give Daniel and me a minute alone?"

Rachel nods, "Of course." With no protesting of any sorts, she first takes the test out of my hand and heads into the bathroom. When she enters, she takes the two pregnancy tests, wraps them in a couple of sheets of toilet paper and disposes them in the waste basket. Then she quickly walks down stairs into the living room. A moment later, I hear the T.V come to life as I hear the voices from her favorite show, Pretty Little Liars.

I stroll down the hall towards my bedroom as I do; I hear Daniel's boots hit the wooden floor with each step he took. When we reach my bedroom, Daniel is the first one to enter, leaving me to close the door behind us. "So, what is it that we need to talk about?" I walk over to him and wrap my arms around his neck, "Is it about the pregnancy scare? I have to admit, I'm slightly disappointed that there isn't going to be a Daniel junior running around here."

He gives me a weak smile as he unwraps my arms from around his neck and sets them down to my sides. "It's not about that." He walks over and sits on the edge of the bed; I follow and take a seat next to him. "It's about us."

I stiffen, is he breaking up with me? "Alright," I say calmly, "What about us?"

He sighs and stares right into my eyes, "There's no easy way to say this so I'm just going to say it." I wait patiently to hear what he has to say, "We need a break."

My heart drops, what does he mean by break? As in break up or as in a break from each other? Either way, I wouldn't accept it either way. "What do you mean a break?"

He just looks at me with the same blank expression, "I mean a break, as in break up. No longer together." He utters harshly.

I don't know what has gone over him, him trying to break up with me and now he's showing me bitterness and harshness. What did I do to deserve this? My heart sinks and feels like it has broken into a million pieces. I couldn't control it, I start crying uncontrollably, "But why?" I whimper.

Daniel glares at me, "We're getting too close and serious. I think it's time that we ended things, once and for all. It'll be safer for you this way." He lays a hand gently on my knee, "I'll be leaving town soon, I don't know when but I know that it will be soon."

The thought of leaving me makes me cry even harder but the thought of me never seeing Daniel again really hit me like a ton of bricks. I feel like that I can't breathe, like I'm slowly being suffocated to death. I get the feeling that Daniel used me, like I was his puppet or something. Something that he could control and use for his own purposes. I thought Daniel wasn't like that, in fact I knew that he wasn't like that because why would he save my life and put his own in danger just to save me?

I shake my head frantically, tears still frequently streaming down my face, "I don't believe you!"

Daniel looks away, pulls his hand off of my knee, and stares at the wall in front of him as he states, "Lauren, I don't love you, and I never have or will. I just used you."

I start to shake uncontrollably; maybe it was from the anger or from my sadness. As if I thought I couldn't cry anymore, tears swell over my eyes and I start to sob. This could not be happening. I put my heart and soul into Daniel and now that isn't mine anymore, I have nothing. Absolutely nothing. How could someone do this to another human being? Why me.

Without even thinking, I take my hand right hand and slap him so hard in the face that I thought my hand was broken from the impact. "Get out of my house." I tried to sound angry and cold but instead, I sounded upset and vulnerable.

Daniel quickly recoils from the impact, like it didn't affect him, and turns his head towards my direction. His facial expression looks angry and wild as if he was about to rip my head off. But at a glance, I could see a hint of sadness in his clear aqua colored eyes. I kind of felt bad for slapping him until he says through clenched teeth, "With pleasure."

With that being said, Daniel lifts himself off of my bed and strides out of the room, slamming the door with such force that he rips it off. I hear his footsteps go down the wooden stairs, then, I hear the loud slamming noise of the front door being shut not so gently. I cringe at the sound.

Not too long after, I hear light footsteps coming up the stairs and in the doorway, I see Rachel standing there. She first takes in the sight of my bedroom door that is now on the floor, her eyes practically pop out of their sockets when her jaw drops at the sight. Rachel quickly runs over to me and sits beside me in the same spot Daniel was not even 2 minutes ago. "I heard the slam of the door then I saw a pretty pissed off Daniel storm out of the house. He practically threw the door off of its hinges. What happened between you two?"

I couldn't hold it in any longer, I start balling in front of Rachel and put my hands over my eyes to try and hide the fact that I was crying over Daniel. Rachel wraps her arms around me and tries to soothe me by rubbing my back and shushing me. "He-he broke up with me," I could barely say between sobs as I look up at her.

Her mouth forms an 'O' shape, "He didn't." When I nod my head, Rachel is about ready to get up as she angrily says, "I'm going to _kill_ him. No one breaks up with my Lauren and gets away with it."

"It's too late," I inform her, "He's leaving town soon and I think that's why he broke up with me. Maybe he just couldn't handle a long distance relationship." I was hoping that was the case. I was hoping that was why he broke up with me. But if it was the reason why, why would he tell me that he never loved me? The thought of him not loving me, makes me cry even harder.

"It's alright," Rachel tries to comfort, "I'm sure it'll just be a temperamental thing."

I shake my head, "No it won't. It sure didn't sound like it with him. He said it would be safer for me and that we were getting way too serious."

Rachel frowns, "What did he mean by it would be safer for you?"

Crap, I didn't want to pull Rachel into this world I've gotten myself into. Although she had every right to know but still. It would definitely be safer for her if she didn't know about any of this. "I don't know," I say like I genuinely had no idea, not knowing what else to say.

"Whatever his reason was for breaking up with you, it's stupid of him. He doesn't know what he's missing out on," Rachel reassures me but it doesn't really help me feel any better.

It hurts to know that the one I loved and put my heart and soul into doesn't even feel the same way about me or doesn't even care that he hurt me. I'm too hurt and upset to talk about this with anyone right now, even with Rachel so I say, "No offense Rachel, but, I would like to be alone right now if that's okay with you."

A slightly hurt expression appears across her face but I know that she understands. She nods and gets that I want her to leave. She gives me a tight squeeze before she rises from my bed, "Just know that I love you and I'll see you tomorrow at school."

I give her a weak smile, "I love you too, and thank you so much for everything."

Rachel smiles back, "Anytime babe, well, I'll see you tomorrow. Bye." She walks over the door and walks out of my room and soon I hear the front door open and close shut. As soon as I hear that sound, my face hits the pillows, and I cry into them until I cry myself to sleep while smelling Daniel's lingered scent.


	5. Chapter 5

_Chapter 5_

It's been almost 4 weeks since I've last seen Daniel, the last time I saw him was the day he came over my house and broke up with me. I assume that he just completely dropped out of school; after all, he had no reason to come now.

I've been told by Rachel that I have been walking around school looking like a zombie. But I don't care, I'm still upset and what's the point of keeping up with my appearance when I have no one to look good for? I shouldn't even be thinking about Daniel but I can't resist. I wonder what he is doing right now. Is he gone? Is he just as upset over our break up as me? I highly doubt it; he _is_ the one who broke up with me, not the other way around.

I'm contemplating this as I sit here in my Calculus class alone with the exception of Mr. Jefferson sitting in his desk in the front of the room. I then hear the shrill of the school bell, announcing a warning that class will begin in 5 minutes. I stare at the white board in front of me, but then, I see a figure at the corner of my eye. I don't bother looking, probably some student walking into lass, why would I care.

The figure walks to the front of the room, and I finally look to see who it is. I see a blonde shaggy haired guy's back, from what I can tell of his back, he was very muscular. His muscles weren't like Daniel's, how he was lean and muscular. This person had muscles popping up his shirt. I didn't recognize him from around here, even when I hear his voice, "Excuse me are you Mr. Jefferson?"

Mr. Jefferson looks up from his laptop and looks through his glasses to see who it is, "Yes, how can I help you?"

"I'm Shawn Woods, and I'm new here. I'm assuming this is Calculus?" His voice is low and deep.

"Yes," Mr. Jefferson says like he knew but forgotten, "Welcome to Lamia Academy High School. I guarantee that you'll like it here." I almost laugh. I feel bad for Shawn he doesn't have any idea what he is getting himself into. "You'll sit next to Lauren Jones; she is the one in the front corner, you will be partners for the rest of the year."

I stiffen when I heard my name and partners in the same sentence, "I'm fine with working by myself Mr. Jefferson." I announce a little too harshly. In all honestly, I just want to be left alone and I don't want anyone taking Daniel's place.

"Miss. Jones, everyone else in the class has a partner but you. Plus the seat next to you is the only one available so I'm sorry but Mr. Woods is going to have to be your partner." He tries to sound sympathetic but I can tell he doesn't care.

Shawn walks over to me and slowly takes his seat next to me. I turn the over way and avoid touching him or looking at him in any way. "Hi," he says to me, "I'm Shawn, I'm new."

"I heard," I say harshly.

"Oh," he simply says, "I just thought that I would be nice and introduce myself. You can talk to me when you're ready to, no pressure."

"I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you," I murmur.

Shawn doesn't say anything. I feel kind of bad to be so rude to him but I wasn't in the mood for small talk. I'll just make it up to him later when I start being less of a bitch because of Daniel. He has really screwed me up emotionally and mentally.

* * *

><p>After school, I head over to the gas station to fill my car up. For some reason, a flashback from months ago pops in my mind. The time when two bikers were planning on doing horrible things to me that I can't even fathom. Thank God Daniel came just in time to save me, but it was also the time where I saw something in him that scared me. When he was beating the biker's face to a pulp, there was pure hatred in his eyes. The time before I found out he was a vampire, those were the simpler times.<p>

Once my car tank is full, I head into my car and head home. My mom was waiting for me to have some sort of talk; I had no idea what it was about yet. Maybe it was about my bedroom door or something unimportant like that.

The night my mom came home, she noticed that I didn't have a bedroom door anymore and asked why. I really didn't have an explanation, I just told her that I didn't like the look of the door and decided to take it down. Thanks to Daniel, I didn't have to do the work. But that part I never told her about, she knows that we broke up and now she's trying to find some other guy for me. It's definitely not what I need right now though. I just need to be single for awhile.

As I'm replaying the night of Daniel's visit in my head, I see something stir in the woods right next to the road. I think nothing of it, thinking that it must be a deer or some other creature. Suddenly, something flashes across the road and stops right in front of my car for a couple seconds.

It looks like a blonde colored wolf but only that this wolf is twice the size of any wolf that I gave seen. Its golden eyes are staring straight into mine, putting me into a trace for a split second. Something deep inside me stirs and I don't know what. Maybe it was fear or oddly enough, a sense of peace and longing for some odd reason.

I scream at the sight of it. I quickly jerk the wheel to the right to avoid hitting it while stomping on the brake. The car is now horizontal on the road, but it doesn't stop moving. The car rolls three times, and I hear the crunching of the metal as it's hitting the pavement of the street. Finally the car comes to a halt but it takes me a minute to realize that the car is upside down and that I'm stuck.

Tears stream down my face in fear and worry. I didn't know how I was going to get out of this one. I start screaming for help, hoping that there was someone out in the woods hunting or anyone. But after minutes of yelling, I hear no one coming to my rescue. The road at this time was as dead as night.

I make an attempt to get out of the car by undoing my seatbelt but I'm lodged between the seat and the roof of the car. The door was obviously no use, I try to look for my cell phone maybe it was on the roof of the car or somewhere in my reach but it's nowhere in sight.

I look out of the window, or what's left of the window I should see. All I can really see is pavement and some further down the road. I start screaming again, highly doubting that anyone is out there. I give up after a few more minutes.

Still looking out of the space, I see a set of paws coming towards me; I hear the clinking of the claws against the pavement as they come closer. I start shaking, whatever it was, and it must be the same thing I almost hit. I scream again, hoping to scare it away but it isn't phased, it keeps coming towards me.

When the wolf creature paws are practically in front of my face, I see the front paws rise. The next thing I now, I feel the car going back and forth as if the thing was trying to help me or make things worse for me.

I yell out again and this time, the paws vanish. I hear the yelping of the wolf creature near the car. Soon, I hear the yelping get farther and farther away, like it was running away. But why? Did it get hurt from glass of the car? Or was it my cries that scared it off?

Suddenly, black comes over my eyes and I feel light-headed. Soon, the darkness over comes me completely.


	6. Chapter 6

_Chapter 6_

My eyes remain closed but I hear the crunching of metal, I quickly open my eyes to see someone's feet almost in front of my face. "Who's there?" I whisper.

The person doesn't reply and again I hear metal being crushed. And then, I see Daniel's face looking at me as he is on his hands and knees. "Are you alright?" I get goose bumps when I hear his voice, it's so warm and inviting, I've missed it so much.

"I think so," I reply placing my hands on top of the car, "I think I fainted awhile ago."

"Is your seatbelt off?" He asks with a mixture of determination and worry in his voice.

"Yes, but I tried getting out but I'm stuck, there isn't any room for me to move," I try lifting a leg out but it's no use.

"Alright," he looks up at the door then tells me, "I'm going to rip the door off and see if that will give you enough room to crawl out." He gets up with such speed and shortly, I hear the crying of the door coming off of the car.

Daniel takes off the door with such ease and throws it down the hill near the road. He bends over so that he can see me, "Try to crawl out now."

I don't even bother trying because it seems hopeless, there is no way I could be able to crawl out with the roof this caved in, "I can't."

"Yes you can," Daniel reaches his hand out to me, "You have to, I know that you can squeeze out of there." When I don't do anything, he says, "I know that it doesn't look like there is enough room for you, but trust me, there is."

That was the thing, I didn't know if I should trust him anymore. After all, he did tell me he lied to me every time he told me that he loved me. At the same time I should trust him, he was my only ticket to getting out of the wreckage. Plus he saved my life numerous amounts of times, the least that I could do is give him my trust this one time.

Eventually, I decide to trust his judgment. I don't take his hand but grab the place where the car door should be connected with the roof and I pull my body and surprisingly I come out of the seat easily. I finally take Daniel's hand held out to me, and he pulls me the rest of the way out.

I manage to get on my knees and stand up with no problems. Daniel instantly lets go of my hand once I stand up, "See." He gives me a small smile, "Are you sure that you don't have any cuts or anything?"

I nod, too shocked to say anything. What is he doing here? I thought he left town for good but a part of me is glad that he hasn't left. But if he was so determined to leave town, shouldn't he be gone by now? Maybe this was a sign that we should be together after all, or that he should still be in my life. I almost forgot that I was angry with him… almost. "What are you doing here?"

He smirks, "I was actually hunting nearby when I heard the accident. By the time I came, you were passed out for a short period of time."

"Oh," is all that I say not knowing what to say until finally I get the nerve to tell him about the wolf, hoping that I didn't sound crazy. Just as I was about to tell him about the gigantic wolf that caused this whole accident, I become light headed and lose my balance. As I fall, everything turns to black and the last thing I hear is Daniel calling out my name.

* * *

><p>I wake up to the sound of Daniel's muffled voice in another room, talking to someone. My eyes slowly open and I take in my surroundings. I'm in Daniel's bedroom not knowing how I got here at first. When I look out the window, it starts to come back to me and I notice that it's completely dark out. How long was I out?<p>

I lay in the familiar silk sheets on the king sized bed for a minute and try to listen in on Daniel's conversation, but, it's too muffled. I rip the covers off of my body and notice that I'm in different clothes than the clothes I left in for school. Instead of jeans and my blouse I was in earlier, I'm in my pajama shorts and my Cookie Monster tee that says 'Love at first bite.'

I look down at my legs to see that I have gauze wrapped around my right calf. I frown and wince as I start to unwrap it, only to reveal a huge gash in my calf. It stings as I wrap it back up just as tightly as it was before.

I get up from the bed and take a look around the room, taking in the suitcase as the foot of the bed. Wow, maybe Daniel really was telling the truth when he said he was leaving town. I'm the reason for him leaving town and knowing this makes me feel so guilty. If it wasn't for me, we wouldn't have had the pregnancy scare which wouldn't lead up to our break up. The truth is, I'm not even angry at him, I'm just angry with myself. For letting him get so close to me, for getting so attached to point that I wouldn't be the same breaking up with him. He changed me for the better though. As corny as that sounds, he truly did. I've become a stronger person because of him, but I guess that is what love does to you.

I quietly move over to the door and press my ear against it. But it still isn't enough to hear Daniel's conversation. I shouldn't be so snoopy but I couldn't help myself. I wanted to know what he was up to lately since we broke up.

Moving as quickly and quietly as I can, I head down the hall towards the kitchen where his inviting voice is coming from. I stop right where the hallway ends and lean against the wall, my attention completely on his conversation with whoever else is here.

"Have you found Adam yet?" Daniel asks in a matter-of-fact like tone.

Who was Adam? I didn't know any Adam, except that was or is my father's name. But I doubt Daniel would still be trying to track him now; he only tried because of me. Daniel had no other reason to find my father, right? The only information Daniel told me about my father was that he was the werewolf side of my family, and that he was reason that I inherited the gene. I'm sure he is talking about a different Adam though… I hope.

I don't hear anyone reply at all, it kind of sounds like he was talking to himself until I realized he must be talking on the phone. I hear a muffled voice, confirming my theory that Daniel was on his cell phone. "What do you mean you can't find him?" He practically shouts, making me jump.

There is more of the muffled voice, "You promised me that he would be up in the Ontario area. You can't track him or anything? Did you even try to?" This time his voice sounds a lot calmer, but I can still sense anger and frustration in his voice.

"Well, you knew the risk going into this. You told me whatever it took; you would find Adam once and for all." He pauses for a minute to what I'm guessing is to find out the other person's side of the story, "Do _you_ want our kind to be wiped out just because you were too much of a coward to find out their hideout? We're the only ones who are even remotely close enough to finding Adam; it's up to us now to find a solution."

Clearly whoever was on the other end of the phone was a vampire also. "You know why I can't leave town just yet." It sounds like he interrupts the other person, "I don't want to hear your excuses so just call me back once you actually find something useful." I hear the beep of him hanging up on the conversation, which was my cue to retreat back to his bedroom.

When I turn around to head to Daniel's bedroom, I run into something hard and warm. I look in front of me to see Daniel staring down at me with a cocky smirk on his face, "Eavesdropping huh?"

"No," I quickly lie, "I just woke up."

"Your heart is racing, clearly you're lying," he announces knowingly, "How much of my conversation did you hear?"

I glare at him, "Just the part where you mentioned an Adam. Who is Adam? And who were you talking to on the phone? And what's up in Ontario? Adam?"

He rolls his eyes, "You're still as curious as ever. And to answer your questions, I believe that it's none of your business of what I do anymore. Now," Daniel comes behind me and gives me a light push, "you should go back to bed."

I turn around and continue to glare at him, "No," I say firmly and stomp my foot. "I want answers, what happened to me when I got out from the car?"

Daniel looks up and down my body, it looks like he's checking me out and I'm starting to feel a little uncomfortable. "Is this the thanks I get for saving you…again?"

That was true, the least I could was say thank you. But he really didn't have to rub in the fact that it wasn't the first time he's saved me, "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Daniel says bitterly, making me glare at him again. "You passed out from what I may say was shock and from what I would guess would be you probably being deprived of sleep."

I stare at him with a confused look on my face. I had a feeling that he already knew that I wasn't sleeping well lately. He was the one haunting me at night, especially in my reoccurring dream ever since the last night I slept over his house. My dreams have been constantly coming back, more so now because Daniel had completely left my life. Or so I thought. "Oh," is all I could really say for now. I search for something else to say as I play with the end of my pajama shorts, speaking of, "And why did I wake up with a different outfit on? I can't help but feel violated."

He gives me his stunning half smiles as he laughs, "You left an outfit of pj's here from awhile back and I just thought you would want something more comfortable to sleep in. Is that such a crime?"

"Yes," I reply, "Especially when the person is unconscious and well unaware with what's going on. Again, I feel violated."

He gives me a quizzical look, "It's not like I did anything to you Lauren. What kind of person do you think I am? Wait, don't answer that." He looks over me, "Besides, it's not like I haven't seen you almost completely naked before." I give him a dirty look, "Actually, I remember a time when I saw you in your birthday suit… frequently." He smiles and winks.

I punch him in his arm, "You're such a dick."

"You never thought that way about me before," he says half jokingly. I hate him right now, him mentioning the past makes me regret what I've done with him. But honestly, I don't regret one thing. It's just with him being such a dick about is ticking me off.

"Well, people's opinions change of each other. You would know of course," I say harshly.

He smirks, "Maybe so, but, at least I changed for the better. You on the other hand, you're still hung up on the past aren't you?" His cocky look appears on his face and I can't help but smack it. But luckily for him, I don't.

"Nope." I say with a confident or what I hope to be a confident looking smile.

"Really?" Daniel says giving me a skeptical look, "So, if I do this," He comes closer to me to the point where we are almost touching, "It wouldn't affect you at all?"

I can hear my heart skip a beat but still remaining steady, trying not to give him the satisfaction, "No." I whisper as I shake my head, trying to keep myself together.

He smiles, sensing that I'm lying and that it really is affecting me the way he wants it to. He knows the affect he has on me and I hate that he can use it to his advantage. "Alright, what about this?" Daniel suddenly takes my hand and turns me around so my back is against his chest. I can feel his other hand slowly going down my back.

It takes everything in me to not face him and crush my lips to his. I wanted to taste him so badly. It was like I was a recovering meth addict and he was the meth, so tempting and irresistible. He was like my own personal drug. I can feel my heart beating rapidly, that was his goal in the first place. I thought he would stop since he won but no, he continues to make my heart race.

Daniel's hand reaches up to my neck and sweeps my hair to one side to place his lips against my neck. "Or this," he whispers against my neck before he starts kissing it softly.

I moan softly as his kisses go up my neck to my jaw. I try to push him away but I can't bring myself to do so. He continues kissing me until he stops when his lips graze my cheek, so close to my lips. I turn my head so that I'm facing him.

Once we are face to face, are lips are practically brushing against each other. We linger there to wait to see who would make the first move. I stare into his eyes while he stares right back into mine with such intensity. I wanted to kiss him so badly that I started to ache, but, I knew that was what he wanted. He wasn't going to give in so easily.

When I take in his mint scent, it's all over for me. I finally cave in and crush my lips to his a little too roughly for my taste. Daniel turns me around so that my body is facing him, cups my face with his hands and kisses me back with the same amount of intensity.

Eventually I have to pull away from my shortness of breath and when I do, Daniel lifts me up in his arms and takes me to his bedroom. This is it, the moment where Daniel isn't going to be leaving after all and we get back together. This has to be some sort of sign that we will indeed be getting back together, I pray that it is.

I pull Daniel's head down to mine then we start kissing again with the equal amount of passion as before. It doesn't take Daniel long to get us into the bedroom and onto his bed. He is on top of me until we roll over on the bed and I end up being on top of him. I pull away from kissing him to quickly lift my shirt off over my head and throw it behind me.

I then lean forward and whisper, "I've missed you so much." Then I pull him to me, pressing my lips back to his before he could reply. But this time, Daniel seems more distant with his kisses. Until eventually he just stops kissing me back; I frown and pull back, my face inches from his. "What's wrong?"

"I can't do this," he announces and gently slides me off of him to the spot on the bed next to him. Before I could say anything, he gets up, throws me my shirt; and without a word he walks out of the room.

My face becomes flushed from anger as I pull my shirt back on and run out of the room after him. He won't avoid what I have to say this time. How dare he play me like he just did to me, I wanted to know why. Why would he do this to me? Was he just that cruel? Was I just some sort of toy to him, a toy he could play with for his liking?

I walk out angrily looking in the kitchen first and made my way back throughout the house, looking for Daniel. By the time that I have searched the whole house for Daniel, I realize that he is nowhere in sight.


	7. Chapter 7

_Chapter 7_

I head into Daniel's kitchen to search for some alcohol; I needed something to calm me down. I'm so upset that Daniel would just run out of here like that. What did I do to him to deserve the way he had played me just minutes ago? Why is he doing this to me?

I was being so stupid and naïve for even believing that Daniel wanted me back. I was stupid for kissing him and basically trying to have sex with him; the last time it happened, it didn't go so well. Not the actual deed, that always went beyond my expectations but the aftermath of it. What if I had sex with him tonight and ended up becoming pregnant? I didn't even want to think about it right now. If only I could find some alcohol.

I finally find a bottle of tequila after minutes searching through the not so abundant coverts in the kitchen. I don't even bother finding a glass or cup to put the tequila in; instead, I drink it straight from the bottle. I take a huge gulp of it and immediately I regret it, I shake my head and scrunch up my face. The taste and alcohol are so overpowering that I run over to the sink and drink from the faucet to get rid of the taste.

When the taste is finally out of my mouth, I grab the tequila and start drinking again. This time, I don't take gulps of it, just sips. I decide to hang out in the living room and watch some T.V. I knew Daniel never watched it; in fact, he only got service on it because I was over constantly. Or so I was told, I'm not sure to believe anything he had said to me in the past. Maybe if I watch something then it'll help get my mind off of Daniel and the past.

I plop down onto the leather couch with the bottle in hand and the remote for the T.V. on the other. The T.V comes to life instantly, I channel surf through all 3000 channels. Once I settle for watching Ridiculousness on MTV, I needed a good laugh; I snuggle into the couch and start to get comfortable until something catches my eye.

Out of the whole grand bookcase that takes up an entire wall, one particular book catches my eye. The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald. I furrow my brow as I walk over to it; something is drawing me over to the book for some odd reason.

I pull out the book carefully, noticing how old and brittle it was, the pages were that yellowish tint you see with older books. I open the book cover slowly to make sure the binding wasn't broken. When I see that it isn't I flip through the pages. By the time I get into the center of the book, a page falls out.

Putting the book between my arm and my side, I bend over and kneel to pick up the page. But when I examine the page front and back, I notice that it isn't part of the book. The text is a different style and font and it seems to be hand written; there also is a red stain on the bottom left corner, like the color of blood. My curiosity gets the better of me as I start to read it:

**_Dearest Daughter,_**

**_Just know that I will be away for awhile. It's for reasons too difficult to explain in one letter. Please know that it isn't because of you or your mother, it's for a reason that you may find out about in due time. It runs through my veins and eventually, it will run through yours soon._**

**_I don't know when I will be back or if I'll ever be back. I need to take care of a few mistakes of my past before I can even consider coming back home to you and your mother. I'm in a situation where it leaves me no choice but to abandon my family. And I'm asking you to try and avoid strangers or any acquaintances that may come into your life now or in the future; it's for your own safety._**

**_I'm not trying to frighten you in anyway; I'm trying to help you. I believe that you are mature enough and old enough to know what I'm telling you in this letter. After seeing you grow up, I know now that you are strong enough for anything that may come your way._**

**_Even though I'm not with you, I want you to know that I truly am just not in body but I am in spirit. I will be watching over you to make sure that you won't get hurt. Call me a guardian angel I guess._**

**_I love you and your mother very much and I look forward to the day when I will be able to see you again._**

**_Love forever and always,_**

**_Dad_**

**_P.S. Don't show or tell your mother anything regarding to this letter. I trust you with this; it'll be our own little secret._**

I read the letter over and over again to find some sort of clue to who this father is talking to, a daughter obviously but whom. Somehow, I have this strange feeling that this letter was addressed to me. What was he running from that was so bad that it got to the point where he had to leave his family behind? Especially when you had a daughter?

It sounds just like the situation my dad would be in I guess. I was still angry at the fact that he left me and my mother, thinking that he was dead but he really wasn't. Although, Daniel could have lied to me when he said that he was still alive, but, what reason would he have for lying to me about that? Plus he knew what he looked like and everything so maybe he truly is alive. I need to see him so desperately to answer all of the questions I have for him.

I make my way back over to the couch with the letter still in hand and lie down as I wait for Daniel to come back; he was bound to sooner or later. Before I lie down, I lift up the cushion and carefully place the letter there. If I fell asleep, I didn't want him to find out that I was snooping around.

I lie on the couch and continue watching Ridiculousness, actually finding myself really laughing at a few parts. After the episode is over, another one comes on and I start drifting off. The next thing I know, I'm dreaming.

* * *

><p><em>It's the same dream that I have been having for the past several nights. I run after Daniel, fall into the ditch, and find my moonstone necklace except it isn't mine. The necklace that I have has a gold chain, this one is silver.<em>

_I hear something rustling in the woods in hopes that it would be Daniel. As I look up I see two faces staring down at me; my dad and a girl who looked like she would be 12, not even. I squint my eyes to get a better look at the girl, she had the same colored hair as me and my dad but instead of brown eyes like me and my dad, she had piercing green eyes. The girl was very beautiful but as I continue staring at her, something changes about her. Her eyes turn to a bright gold color and instead of finger nails; they are replaced with large claws. _

_I coward back to the other side of the ditch, not knowing what was going on. Suddenly I feel a burning sensation in the same hand where the moonstone was. When I look down at my hand, I see the moonstone glowing a white bright light. I drop it immediately and look back up to my father and the girl. But instead of my father and the girl, I see that they are replaced with two large brown wolves. _

_They snarl, revealing how big and sharp their fangs truly were. The wolves crouch down as if ready to attack, I scream as they pounce towards me. _


	8. Chapter 8

_Chapter 8_

My eyes shot open as I bolt upright quickly, my hands tightly clenching the covers to my chest. Once I come to the realization that I'm awake, I rub my eyes with my hands still tired from staying up so late the night before.

As the past night slowly comes back to me, I look around the room wondering if I was still in the living room. But I wasn't, I was bad in Daniel's bedroom. Somehow, no matter what happens, I always end up back here. I need to get out of this room before it starts to remind me of the unwanted memories of the past or the embarrassment and humiliation from last night.

I throw the covers off of my body and immediately stride over to the door. When I open the door, I find Daniel on the over side with a tray with a plate of eggs, hash browns, and toast; on the side is a glass of orange juice and next to that is a small vase with a single red rose.

I just stare at him, not knowing what to say; then I finally decide to go around Daniel and walk towards the living room. The gesture was nice but I really wasn't in the mood for his little mind games.

I hear Daniel's footsteps follow me but then I see him flash past me once I got to the end of the hallway, where the kitchen and hallway meet. I see Daniel leaning against the island with his arms folded and the tray beside him.

"I can cook for myself you know," I inform him, figuring that that was an easier way to start the argument I knew that was going to happen.

"I know," Daniel says quietly, "A 'thank you' from you would be nice every once and awhile too. But we can't always get what we want."

I glare at him, "Well, thank you for the gesture," I say with some venom in my voice, "But I really should get going, no one knows I'm here." I try to walk past him but he blocks my path.

"Actually, they do. I called Rachel telling her that you came over wanting to talk not knowing whether I was here or not, you decided to give it a shot. I also told her to make up an excuse to explain to your mother where you really were." He says this with his specialty cocky grin making me glare at him even more.

Then I realize, he did his mind control thing with Rachel and that's why he was being so smug about it. "You compelled Rachel didn't you?" When he doesn't say anything, I have my answer and push him away from me, "You asshole, you told me you wouldn't do that anymore."

"I never said that," Daniel simply says. "Even if I did, whatever I said back in the past means nothing to me now."

I frown, "That's not what it seemed like last night. You kissed me like you meant it which means you still feel something for me like the way I do for you." I mentally kick myself for confessing that I still loved him despite the pain and hurt.

"Last night was a mistake, and a part of the past now; so it means nothing," Daniel tells me harshly. "I think you should go now, your car is parked outside." He takes a set of keys out of his pocket and sets them on the island a little too forcefully.

I pretend that his comment didn't affect me at all. Even though it killed me inside to hear it, I didn't want him to have the satisfaction of seeing that he was actually getting to me. Wait, my car was destroyed in the crash. How did he get a new one so quickly? Was that why he was out last night? "I don't have a car last time I checked."

"Well, you do now," he says with an attitude, "It's the same model, has the same color, same license place, and everything; so you're welcome. Oh, wait, I forgot that you aren't familiar with the term 'thank you'." He says sarcastically.

I glare at him as I walk up to the island and grab the car keys. I was about to burst into tears out of anger and sadness. I just wished that his feelings for me were mutual with mine, and that he wasn't such an asshole about it. "Go fuck yourself," I manage to say as I past him, going through the living room to the front door. But I stop when I reach the couch, remembering about the letter I found last night, that I hid underneath the cushion.

"Before I leave," I walk over to the cushion, lift it up and find the letter still there. "Explain this," I inquire as I reach for the letter and put it in the air for him to see.

He takes a glance at it and immediately knows what the letters contain. His expression goes from smug to serious in matter of seconds, "Where did you get that?"

"I found it," I say nonchalantly, "But more importantly, where did _you _get it? Is this letter meant for me?"

He doesn't respond at first, all he does is given me an express full of hate, glaring at me, "I found it somewhere and I honestly don't know who it is for," he finally says, being short with me intentionally. "Now, get out."

I crumple the letter and throw it at him, it hits his face but he doesn't flinch. "Seriously? That's all you have to say? After everything we've been through you can't even give me an answer to something that is so important to me. You don't even care that this is my father we're talking about, all I want are answers and the only way I can get them is if I meet my father again. I remember he meant the world to me before he faked his death and I need to know _why_ he would do that to my mother and me. Why can't you just at least give me one simple answer? Imagine you were in my shoes and this was your mother we were talking about, you would want answers too."

I can't take being in the dark anymore. I dealt with it for such a long time but enough is enough; there's only so much a person can take. I just wanted to know why Daniel wouldn't tell me anything about my father or anything relevant to him. If he knew something I just wished he would tell me.

Daniel doesn't say anything as I see his angry façade fade away into a look of sympathy. I knew that I would get to him if I mentioned his mother; she was the most important person he has ever had in his life. I felt kind of bad to bring up his mother, it was a touchy subject but I longed for him to understand how important finding answers about my father were to me.

"Please, just go," Daniel says quietly with a now blank expression.

That's when I can't hold back the tears any longer and I let them escape. Tears start dribbling down my face as I say, "Why Daniel?"

"Because I just want you out of my life, it's for the best," he tells me harshly.

This makes more tears stream down my face, "What did I ever do to you to ever deserve the way you're treating me right now? All I ever did was love you and this is what I get back? Just because of the false pregnancy? Daniel, if that's all you're worried about, change me into a vampire! I don't care, all I know is that I want to be with you and I don't care what it takes to get you back. Just please, be with me Daniel I love you too much to let you go now."

I couldn't believe I was confessing all of this Daniel. I told myself for so long that I didn't need him and that I wouldn't move on, but I know now that I won't ever be able to. We have been through so much whether he wanted to admit that or not, it was the truth. He saved me so many times and in a way I saved his too. Reality is that Daniel just being with me was all the saving I ever needed or ever will need. He was and still is so special to me and I'd give anything to have him back. I won't let any of that go without putting up a fight.

Daniel's face looks like it's full of pain and longing, it reaches his hurt-filled eyes. He doesn't say anything, and I start crying more because of his silence. The next thing I know is that he's standing right in front of me and puts his hands on either side of my face.

He looks deeply into my eyes, "Lauren, listen to me carefully and don't talk just hear me out."

I can't help but listen to him and I wanted to ask him what he was about to tell me but I couldn't find myself to talk.

"I love you and it's because I love, that I have to let you go. It's dangerous for you to be with me especially since it will draw attention from all of the unwanted visitors that maybe coming into town soon. I have to protect you and the only way for me to do that is to go away. It kills me inside that I have to leave my only reason for living, the love of my life. I'm so selfish for loving you so much that it hurts more than you will ever know."

I wanted to ask who was coming to town and what they want with me, but something stops me from speaking. I wanted to tell Daniel that I loved him too and that I always will no matter what has or will happen between us but yet again, I can't.

Daniel smirks as he tells me, "Just kiss me."

At the moment when Daniel tells me to kiss him, I crush my lips to his so forcefully that I thought I hurt him. Daniel reluctantly kisses me back just as forcefully yet it was so gentle.

We must have been kissing for minutes because I have to pull away for air. Daniel doesn't start kissing my neck or anything like he normally did when I pulled away. I frown, wondering what we was about to do next.

"I wish that I didn't have to do this, but I need to. Just know before I do this that I love you and I won't stop loving you no matter what happens," he says grimly as he brushes the back of his hand on my cheek, sweeping a strand of hair back. My frown deepens as I try to think of what he was going to that he was going to regret so much.

He sighs before he looks into my eyes deeply and says, "You're going forget everything that I just told you and you'll forget about the other night; the car accident, what happened between us and what happened this morning. You only came here to check up on me but you found out that I left town for good. You were sad but you knew it was for the best," I notice one single tear streaming down his left cheek, "Once you get in your car to leave this place and never come back, you realize that you're over me and are able to move on from the past. The last time you remember seeing me or speaking to me was the night over at your house. Think that the reason why I broke up with you was because I never loved you."

Daniel sighs again, "Forget about your father and the letter that you found, you still think that he died in that car accident years ago." Daniel strokes my face one last time before he vanishes before of my eyes.

I shake my head to try and get the feeling that I was in some sort of trance out of my head. I look around and realize that I'm in Daniel's house, but why? I guess I just wanted to see if he was still around and if he was okay, I couldn't help but worry about him.

I walk around the house to see if anyone was here but once I check every room and find them all abandoned, I leave and get into my car to go home. I start the car and drive up the long driven but before I pull out onto the road, I take on last look at the house. I think of all the memories Daniel and I had in that house and those were the best times of my life. Despite the fact that Daniel never loved me, I will cherish those moments forever.

Daniel was a part of my past now, he's gone and there is nothing I can do about it now. It's time for me to move on to over people. I've finally moved after these weeks of mourning and I'm ready to finally live my life again. With that in mind, I look away from Daniel's house and drive onto the road, on my way home to my mom.


	9. Chapter 9

_Chapter 9_

I walk into my Calculus class feeling a little too happy for the first time in what feels like months. I guess it's because I had come to the realization that I didn't need Daniel anymore last night. I'm glad he is gone so I can live my life without being held back. But when I left his house yesterday, I left with a sense of power and victory. I felt like I needed that visit to his house, it gave me a sense of reassurance that moving on is the best thing to do for both his sake and mine. Even though Daniel had clearly moved on before I did, I would always love him regardless of what he had done to me.

As always, I'm the first one to be on time for Calculus. I say a brief hello to Mr. Jefferson as I take my seat to wait for the other students to arrive. I pull out my book and notebook from my backpack along with a calculator and pencil.

When I put my backpack underneath my desk I notice someone coming in, but I don't look to see who it is. But when the person comes to put their things on the same table as mine, I realize it must be Shawn.

I felt terrible for treating him the way I did a couple of days ago; what made it worse was that it was his first day of school here. I didn't exactly welcome here I treated him as if he was an abomination to this school. I shouldn't have taken my bad mood out on Shawn; it wasn't his fault that I was upset in the first place. I decide to wait for him to take a seat before I try to talk to him.

Once he does, Shawn starts unpacking his things. I casually leaning onto the table and look to him as I say in an upbeat tone, "Hey."

"Hey," Shawn murmurs back to me. He doesn't even look in my direction but continues taking his belongings out of his backpack slowly, to probably try and avoid talking to me; I don't blame him.

"I'm sorry about the other day," I say being straightforward, "I'm not usually like that, I just had a bad day but it's still not an excuse. I really am sorry about being such a jerk to you."

He finally looks over to me after a minute of silence; I almost thought he just ignored me, "I guess I can accept your apology." He smiles, "But you have to make it up to me. It has to be by this week sometime though."

I frown and smile back, not wanting to be rude. I was confused by what he meant by having a time limit of a week, this week to be certain. "What do I have to do to make it up to you?" I'm starting to get nervous, hoping it wasn't what I think it was… a date. I don't think I was _that _ready, maybe if I gave myself like a month or two then I would be. Actually, no I will just go for it. Daniel has probably moved on to tons of girls by now so I should be able to do the same. If I have really moved on from Daniel then I should start dating again, it would help to know that I could be able to attract someone.

Shawn just continues to stare at me smiling until he finally says, "You have to let me take you out for dinner or anything you want to do, it'll be up to you."

I gulp; hopefully I was ready for a date so soon. Just to make sure we were on the same page I ask, "So, it'll be a date?"

He shakes his head, "No, it'll be like acquaintances or strangers I should say, getting to know each other better."

I smile, slightly relieved and slightly disappointed at the same time. I was relieved that it wasn't a date and disappointed that I couldn't prove myself worthy now. "Sure, why not? I mean, it's the least I could do."

Shawn smiles again, "Great, so how about tonight at 7 at Fancy? I'll pay and everything, all you have to do is show up."

I shake my head in protest for us going to Fancy. Rachel and I went there for our little girl date and that place was expensive. I would feel bad if Shawn paid for both him and me, it didn't feel right to me. "No, I don't want you to waste your money on me."

He nods, "Yes, just don't worry about it okay? It won't be a waste especially for someone as nice as you." He smirks and gives me a wink.

I sustain a giggle and blush, he was actually _very_ attractive. He was almost as gorgeous as Daniel, almost. I shouldn't even be thinking about him right now. "Thank you. Fine, I guess I'll let you pay but I'll pay you back when I get the money."

"I will refuse to accept it," he smiles and that's when the bell rings; Mr. Jefferson announces to everyone in the class to get in their seats. Shawn and I turn our attention to the head of the class, and I don't talk to him at the end of class other than him giving me his number to text him where I live so he can come pick me up for tonight.

* * *

><p>"I don't know why you insisted on coming over to help me get ready, it's not even a date," I inform Rachel as she fixes a mistake she made as she was applying on my eyeliner onto my top eyelid.<p>

"Still! You never know if things with this Shawn guy will get serious; might as well make a good impression the first time. Plus, I love doing your makeup." Rachel smiles, "Besides this guy is better than the D-word and isn't like the D-word." I knew that she meant Daniel.

"You never know…" I linger.

"Since Shawn isn't the D-word himself that automatically tells me that Shawn is a better option. Just saying." She says all-knowingly. A part of me wants to just tell Rachel that it doesn't make him the better option, just a replacement. And to also tell her that no one could or ever will compare to Daniel. Something in me still feels something for Daniel but it isn't strong enough to faze me. Regardless, the feeling is still there when it shouldn't be.

I don't say anything, afraid to tell Rachel how I really feel about the situation. I sigh as I wait for Rachel to finish up my makeup. Once she applies the last stroke of eye shadow, Rachel walks over to my closet and pulls out one of my favorite party dresses. It's a knee length, skin tight, with one shoulder, dress. The dress was perfect for showing off what little curves I have. "Really Rachel? That dress screams desperate." I put my hands on my hips.

She clearly wanted to show off my body in that dress. Rachel told me before that I looked drop dead sexy in the dress and that it would attract any guy in the room. I believe her too, I hated to brag but I did look good in the dress. "C'mon Lauren, live a little. You said yourself that it isn't a date so why are you freaking out?" She raises an eyebrow.

I knew that she was right; I take the dress from her and head to the bathroom to freshen up and change. Rachel follows me but stops at the door of the bathroom when I shut the door in front of her face. "Tell me more about Shawn, what is he like?" Rachel asks with curiosity in her voice.

"The truth is I don't know anything about him." I say as I brush my teeth and put on my deodorant.

"I wasn't talking about personality wise; I was talking about what he looks like wise. Is he smoking hot or is he just an average looking person?"

I roll my eyes as I slip on the dress; of course she would want to know that detail before anything else. "I don't know. I think he's attractive but that's just me. He's got lots of muscle something that I know you would like."

"Ooo," she coos, "I think I may like this guy already."

I laugh, but stop shortly because something holds me back. I glance over on the floor and see a pink box. I pick it up and I recognize it as the pregnancy test box from almost a month ago. I sigh, my mind flashing back to the incident between Daniel and I. Things we so different back before the false pregnancy happened, I remember being truly happy with Daniel. And now, it's all gone just like that but hopefully after tonight I may find myself looking for someone special again.

"Rachel," I call out while I continue to stare at the box, "I don't think I can do this."

"Yes you can, Lauren, and you know it too. You just won't give yourself an opportunity to show that you can." Rachel assures me.

A skeptical look comes across my face as I throw the box in the trash and open the door, "I don't know, I'm actually sort of missing Daniel right now." It was the truth, somewhat at least. I feel like I'm completely over him but I'm slightly not at the same time. It's weird, the feeling was barely but now I think it's increasing.

Rachel frowns at me as she smacks my arm, I yelp. "Don't you _ever_ say that name or what you just said ever again, alright? There is no reason why you should miss him, he's a dick and you deserve someone better than him. Maybe this Shawn kid can help you. How do you expect yourself to move on if you don't even put yourself out there?"

As I'm soothing the place where Rachel smacked me, I think to myself, she's right. She really is right, I shouldn't wait till I move on in due time. I should make myself move on and eventually I'll forget about Daniel.

Just then I hear the doorbell ring, Shawn must be here. Before I head downstairs to answer the door, I pull Rachel into a tight hug, "Thank you! That's exactly what I needed to hear."

I hear Rachel telling me to text her while she hung out here waiting for me to come back from the 'date.' I agree to texting her as I open the front door, revealing Shawn in a nice looking suit. He didn't look that much different minus the clothing choice. I smile, "Hey, are you ready to go?"

Shawn is gawking at me with his mouth open. I hold back a laugh as he shakes his head to get himself out of his trance like state. "Yeah, let's go."

He then walks up my driveway towards his truck with me behind him. Shawn opens the passenger door for me and as I climb in the truck, he quickly gets into the driver's side and starts the engine. He then backs out of my driveway, and drives off on our way to dinner at Fancy.


	10. Chapter 10

_Chapter 10_

Shawn and I get a table in the back of the restaurant so we could have some privacy to talk. Once we get to the table, Shawn pulls out a chair for me like a gentleman and I gladly take the seat smiling. Shawn and I didn't really talk in the car maybe he just wanted to wait till we went to dinner so we would have something to talk about.

Once Shawn takes his seat across from me, the waitress hands both of us a menu and asks us what we wanted to start off with, "I would like water please," I reply.

She looks over to Shawn, "And for you?"

"I'll have the same," Shawn says, looking a little bit nervous. Was it because we were at dinner together or something? Was I that intimidating?

"Alright," the waitress says, "Are you two ready to order?"

"Yes," Shawn and I say at the same time.

She smiles to Shawn and asks, "What will it be?"

"Umm," he looks down at his menu and says, "I'll have the chicken parmesan with the side of a Caesar salad."

I tell her that I'll have the same thing, and when she walks away. I glance at my phone to see if I have a message or anything from Rachel. None. I look up to Shawn and give him a weak smile. We sit there silently for a minute until I break the silence. "So, you're new here?" I mentally smack myself, of course he is or else we wouldn't be here in this restaurant getting to know each other.

He smirks, "Yeah, I moved here just last week. My mom's job moved to the town over, and the cheapest place she could find was here. So here I am." Shawn still looks slightly nervous and I wonder why.

I give him a half smile, "Where does your mom work?"

"Uh she works as a lawyer but she wasn't getting many cases down in the part of Tennessee we lived in." I was about to ask him what part of Tennessee but he interrupts me, "My turn to ask a question, are you single?"

I'm taken aback by the sudden interest in me, clearly he was interested in me in some way or else he wouldn't ask me that question. Especially with the amount of eagerness he expressed when he asked, "Um yes, I am single, why do you ask?"

"No reason," he blows off, "You're way too pretty to be single." He winks at me and it gives me a slight flutter in my stomach and my face gets red. "You're blushing," he announces with a smile on his face.

"No I'm not," I put my elbows on the table and cover my face with my hands. "Thank you for the compliment though."

"Not a problem," I hear him reply back, "You look cute when you blush by the way."

I can feel my face heat up even more when he tells me this. "Stop it," I say playfully. "We only just met after all."

"When I see something I like, I go for it." Shawn practically mutters to me. I uncover my face to see his expression but it's just serious as he's staring at me. He finally smiles and breaks the tension, "So, tell me about your family. Parents? Have any siblings?"

"That's a touchy subject," I say as I take a sip of my water. "But, I don't have any siblings and I live with my mom."

"Oh, your parents are divorced I'm assuming?" Shawn declares with a concern look on his face.

"Um, actually, my dad died years ago," I whisper, looking down at the table to avoid an exchange of awkward looks.

It's silent for what feels like hours until Shawn finally says something, "I'm sorry for your loss." I look up at him and he has a sympathetic look upon his face. It sounded like he meant what he said, that he really was sorry.

I give him a warm smile, "Thank you, its fine though. I don't remember a lot of him, just that I knew he loved me." My dad was surprisingly on my mind all day. I know that he died in that accident those years ago and that he wasn't going to be coming back, but, I still feel like he's here. Like he was living somehow, maybe his spirit was with me in some shape or form.

He smiles back, "Of course he would have loved you. Who wouldn't someone as beautiful as you?" He smirks.

I can feel the blood rushing to my cheeks, "Thank you." I pause before asking, "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure," he says before taking a gulp of his water.

I hide my hands under the table so he couldn't see I was nervously twirling my thumbs. "Why are you being so nice to me; especially after the way I treated you the other day?"

"I believe everyone deserves a second chance, why do you ask?"

"Um, just wondering. But you're being a little _too_ nice to me right now, which means you must feel bad for me for something I did. What is it?" I sounded crazy by making accusations but I couldn't help but feel he knew something important about me, something that I didn't even know.

Shawn gives me a quizzical look, "What are you talking about? I don't know anything about you to feel bad for you about, well, besides your dad but you just told me that. The reason why I'm being so nice to you is because I want to be. Plus you get straight to the point, you don't deal with anyone's B.S, I like that about you." He smiles.

I smile back and say playfully, "You got that about me before dinner? I'm impressed." I take a sip of water. "What else can you say about me?"

"Well, I can tell that you put up a wall around yourself and you hardly let anyone in. Despite, how close they get to you, you still find an excuse to not let them in," Shawn says all knowingly.

I stiffen slightly, how would get all of that from only talking to me 3 times? There's something he must know about me that he isn't telling me about. I need to find out what it was about. "Damn," I say, acting like it didn't bother me, "You're good; can you read minds or something?"

He laughs, "Hardly, I wish. I guess I'm just really good at reading people, call it a curse." He smiles and takes another sip of his drink, "Is there any dirt on you I should know?" He says jokingly.

I laugh, "No, I don't think so or at least not yet," I also say jokingly, "What about you, any dirt on the new kid?"

Shawn smirks, but he looks serious at the same time. I slightly frown, "No, no dirt on me; my record is clean."

That's strange. What was he hiding? I shake my head, thinking to myself that it's just paranoia. I always think someone is hiding something from me and I know that's not the case with Shawn. He's too sweet and nice to be hiding anything, right?

Before I could say anything, the waitress comes to our table with a tray of our plate full of food on it. She sets down our plates in front of us. "Is there anything you need?" She asks, looking at Shawn.

"No thank you." He says. That was her cue to leave, and she does, walking away saying that if we needed anything that we should call her over.

Shawn immediately digs into his meal, while I linger playing with a crouton on top of the lettuce in my salad. I look up at Shawn, who is looking down at his plate, and ask, "Any recent relationships?" I don't know where that came from but I needed to know. I was curious to know, and I would be disappointed if he said he wasn't ready for one.

He swallows down a bite of chicken, "Nope, the last time I was in a relationship was months ago, and it wasn't that serious so I got over it pretty quick. What about you? Any guys in your life right now I should be aware of?"

I knew that he was going to ask the question but I don't want to bring up Daniel to him. He was recent and I didn't know if Shawn would like that very much. "Yeah, well, no actually. I'm not seeing anyone right now, I mean. But I did just break up with my boyfriend a month ago. I'm over it now."

The truth was, I really was over him and I was starting to set my eyes on Shawn. There is something about him that draws me into him, not to mention that the boy was gorgeous but his personality was also perfect. I guess I'm having a little crush on him.

"Oh," is all he says with disappointment in his voice at first until he takes a few bites of his salad, "Sorry to hear about that. Was it serious?"

I contemplate before answering. I didn't want to get into details with the past, with Daniel. He did have a right know, but not yet. "Yes, it was serious. I kind of don't want to talk about it if that's fine with you." I take a drink and reach for my salad.

He slightly nods, "Of course." Shawn then gives me a weak smile and looks over to his left, out the window. I see something change in his facial expression. The look was a mixture of shock and anger; I frown and ask, "What's wrong Shawn?"

When I look out the window and follow his gaze, I'm pretty sure I had a good idea to who he was looking at. I hear the clattering of my fork when I drop it and hits the plate; I immediately stiffen. My jaw tightens and I clench my fist, holding the napkin in my left hand so tightly that I think my nails are breaking the skin.

I glare at Jackie as she walks down the sidewalk in her designer high heeled boots, designer jeans, and designer tank top. Her outfit makes her look like a slut, or a hooker, same thing I guess. Either way, that's what would best describe Jackie, despite the fact that she was so beautiful that she would make any supermodel feel insecure.

Her beauty doesn't make up what's inside though. She's a cold, selfish, crazy bitch that should just crawl back in the hole from which she came from. I never knew what Daniel saw in her to make him love her, besides the looks, there was nothing to her at all. The bitch tried to kill me months ago, technically she did, but still. I wouldn't have a problem shoving the knife that settled beside my plate right into her cold heart if it wasn't for Shawn here with me now. Especially, I wanted to know why Jackie was here in town; to finish me off?

I was too angered to talk right now, as I hear Shawn curse under his breath. I see at the corner of my eye that he looks over at me, "Who are you staring at?" He asks, acting as if he hadn't looked over at Jackie, but I knew. He knew something about the world of vampires but maybe I was mistaken.

I had to leave right away, I needed to get away before I was tempted in going after Jackie and end up being the one dead. I push myself out from the table and rise to my feet, "I had a nice time Shawn but I have to go now, thank you for everything."

I hear Shawn calling my name as I walk away towards the front door. I push the double doors easily and once I'm out on the sidewalk, I look around to make sure Jackie wasn't around. I turn right towards the Victoria Secret store down the street, if Shawn was planning on trying to find me, he wouldn't step foot in the store.

Once I am in the store, I pull out my cell phone and call Rachel. She picks up on the second ring, "What's going on? Is he making a move on you?" She plays.

"No, I need you to pick me up actually. I'm at the Victoria Secrets store; I'll explain when we get back to my house." I hang up the phone, not wanting to be questioned at the moment. I was on edge, thinking that Jackie was watching me, and was planning on killing me.

Jackie must have a reason to be here in town, or else she wouldn't be here. If she wasn't here for me, then who would she be here for? I mean, Daniel left town so she wouldn't find him here. Right? Only time will tell, until then, I have to keep my eyes open.


	11. Chapter 11

_Chapter 11_

I walk over to Rachel with a cup of hot tea in both of my hands. I hand a cup to her right before I sit down across from her at my dining table. "So," Rachel begins, "Are you going to tell me what happened tonight? And why you ran out of there like the place was on fire?"

I give Rachel a weak smile. Honestly, I didn't know what to tell her anymore. I didn't want to tell her about the fact that Jackie was a vampire and how she tried to kill me not Henry, Daniel's deceased friend. So I come up with this, "I saw Daniel's ex girlfriend at the restaurant and she reminded me of the past between Daniel and me." Truth was, I did think of Daniel right when I saw her; something deep inside of me secretly hoped he was still in town.

Rachel lets out an exaggerated sigh, "Babe, how many times do I have to tell you? He wasn't worth your time or ever will be. Don't let him control you this way, it's like he put you on a spell or something. I have a good feeling about this Shawn guy; why not give him a chance to heal your broken heart?"

I don't say anything, knowing that she was right. I should give him a chance but there is something about him that just doesn't seem right to me. I don't know if it was his reluctant ways of getting to know me or if it was because he seemed to be hiding secrets. Even those reasons draw me more into him. "I don't know…" I linger.

She gives me a look that silences me, "C'mon, what do you have to lose? It's not like you're going to marry the guy. If he asks you out, you better say yes or else I'm going to beat you."

I laugh at the thought of Rachel thinking she could beat me up. I stop laughing and Rachel says to me in all seriousness, "On a serious note, I just want you to be happy Lauren. If Shawn makes you happy, go for it. If he doesn't make you happy, then you can always find another guy." She reaches out and touches my hand, "You deserve to find someone, let yourself be happy for once instead of worrying about others."

I lightly squeeze her hand and smile at her. Just as I was about to agree with her, the doorbell rings its tune. I release Rachel's hand from mine, and walk over to the door. Thinking that it was my mom who forgot her house key, I didn't care that I was in only yoga pants and a tank top with a sloppy ponytail. But when I open the door, I regret not caring about my appearance.

On the other side of the door is Shawn with a boxed dinner in hand. We don't say anything at first until he hands over the dinner to me, "Here," he says, "I thought that I would bring you what was left of your dinner since you didn't eat much of it anyway."

"Thanks," I murmur to him. He's still standing there clearly wanting me to let him in or wanting to talk about tonight. I sigh, and put the dinner down on the table right next to the door. I walk outside and close the door shut behind me, "About tonight… I'm sorry about running off like that. I guess I kind of freaked out because of the way things were moving between us."

I knew I was digging myself a hole but I was being honest. Things between us were moving a little too fast for me but the thing is I kind of liked it. It was strange to admit, but, it was the way Shawn was such a gentleman and respected me that made me like him. A plus along with those things was his looks, he was very handsome.

Shawn frowns in confusion, "What are you talking about? The way things are moving? How are things moving?"

I look over to his truck a little too fluttered to look him straight in the eye. But before I can say anything he decides to say something, "I already know what you're going to say so spare me the details. You think we're moving too fast aren't you?"

He looks at me for an answer and all I can manage is a nod.

Shawn continues staring me as he tells me, "I shouldn't like you already, but, I do." My eyes dart over to Shawn's face full of longing, "I don't know what it is about you that makes me want to know more and more about you."

I just look at him, a little shocked by what he was telling me. He was being so sweet and kind to me, I wish I could say something right now but I can't. Until finally I'm able to say something, "Why do you like me?" I didn't mean it in a harsh way but I genuinely wanted to know what he saw in me.

He comes closer to me and stares deeply into my eyes, "You're smart, funny, you have spark, you're also kind, selfless, and you're probably one of the most beautiful girls I've ever met."

I continue to stare at him like a complete idiot as my heart races. There was something about him that I couldn't say no to, like he had some sort of power over me. "Shawn, I don't know. We hardly know each other, no offense or anything."

Shawn smiles, "None taken. I mean, I'll understand if you don't want to date but I figured it'd be a way to get to know each other but at the same time be committed to each other." He places his hand on my cheek and I don't pull away like I expected to. As he slowly leans down to my face, I don't pull away and when his lips touch mine, I kiss back.

The kiss was so different than what I was used to with Daniel. Daniel kissed with passion and love and they were practiced but Shawn's kisses were a little sloppy but still enjoyable nonetheless. We stand there kissing until I pull away and remove his hand from my cheek. I smile as I ask, "When's the next date?"

He smiles back and says, "How about next weekend? Same place?"

I nod and continue to smile. I probably looked stupid looking to him but I didn't care, I was happy and content with Shawn. "Night." I say when I was in my house, about to close the door, "See you tomorrow."

"Night," I hear Shawn reply just before I shut the door. I reach my fingers up to my lips still feeling the tingling sensation of his kiss on them. It was crazy how I let myself be me around Shawn. When I was out on the porch with him, I didn't have any doubts or hesitation like I thought I would have. I guess I really moved on from Daniel, as weird as that sounds it made me relieved.

I turn around to head into the dining room where I thought Rachel would be waiting. She was standing right by the table I placed the box of dinner Shawn gave to me. "What happened out there that's making you so happy?"

I smile and give her a gesture to proceed, I knew she was thinking it but it wasn't clear in her mind yet. When she finally gets it she runs into my arms for a tight embrace, "I'm so proud of you," she exclaims, "I knew you could do it!"

"Thank you Rachel, for everything." I pull back suddenly, wanting to do what I was waiting to do the moment I left that restaurant. "I'll be back; I need to go to the bathroom." Before she could say anything, I jog up the stairs and close the door behind me once I reach the bathroom.

I pull my cell phone out of my pants and scroll through my contacts until I finally find the number and name I was looking for. I then hit the talk button and hold the phone up to my ear.

I hear a click and then a female voice says, "The number you are trying to reach has been disconnected-" I press the end button before the voice continues. I should have guessed that Daniel would have disconnected his phone, but it was worth a try.

Maybe it was a sign that I should move on with Shawn and just try to be happy for once. I want to move on with Shawn but at the same time I don't because I feel that he's hiding something from me, something big. Maybe if I get close enough with Shawn, I can find out what that secret may be. But getting close means getting attached; and getting attached means heart break.


	12. Chapter 12

_Chapter 12_

I'm sitting in Calculus class waiting for my recent boyfriend, Shawn, to arrive to class. It's been a couple of weeks of dating him and it's probably been one of the best weeks of my life. We have been hanging out constantly at either his house or mine, although I have yet to meet his mother or father. They both work during the day every day, his mom is a lawyer and his dad owns his own business as a plumber.

I've grown to know him more than I thought possible within 2 weeks and he probably feels the same way about me. At first going into this relationship, I thought that it would have ended just as soon as it started. But, I was completely wrong about him. I thought that he was only in it for using me but I was wrong, he isn't like how Daniel. Daniel was cocky, arrogant, smug, and just an asshole; Shawn is the total opposite, he's sweet, a gentleman, nice, and someone my mother would approve of. My mother was a hard woman to please especially when she met Daniel. Daniel looked like a bad kid to him, someone who did drugs and alcohol; I guess she was right by saying he didn't belong with me since he was a vampire. But my mother never or will ever know that about him.

Although I still feel like Shawn is hiding something from me, it's not as much of a big deal to me. He clearly wasn't a vampire because the other day, he touched my rosary and didn't get burned by it. He wasn't a werewolf, he wasn't affected by silver. I didn't know what the werewolves' weaknesses were but I assumed that that was one of them, since almost everything from media about vampires was true. Maybe he was indeed human, but, how did he know Jackie? Did she use him for something? Or is she using him right now with me? I don't believe that he would do that to me, after all, Jackie hardly knew anyone in town except me and Daniel. Right?

As I'm thinking about the reasons why Jackie was back in town, I feel a tap on my shoulder. I immediately look over and see that it's Shawn, I smile up at him. "Hey," I say before our lips brush against each others for a second.

"Hey. Before I forget, happy birthday!" Shawn shouts.

I groan, I hated my birthday not just because of all the attention I get because of it but because each birthday Rachel takes me out to a surprise place. I had no idea where we were going, and I had a feeling that it wasn't going to be pleasant. "Shush," I say in a hushed tone, "Lower your voice, I don't want people hearing that it's my birthday.

"Why not?" Shawn questions as he takes his seat beside me.

"Because I don't like people knowing it's my birthday." I say but he still has a confused look on his face, "Unwanted attention," I hint.

He nods, "Oh, so what are we going to do tonight? Go out to dinner? Movie?"

I smile and shake my head, "No need to worry about where we're going. Rachel has that part covered, although I don't know where that part may be."

Shawn smiles, "Knowing Rachel, it's probably some place wild and crazy."

Rachel and Shawn we now such good friends and I'm relieved that they get along with each other so well, unlike Daniel's and Rachel's relationship. They didn't like each other very much towards the end of Daniel and I's relationship. I suppose they got along better in the beginning but not as well as Rachel was with Shawn. It must be another sign that we should be together.

"Probably," I say in agreement, "I'm a little scared for tonight. By the way she says that you need to be ready by 10:30 tonight," I pause then remember something else she said, "Oh, and she also said to wear something casual. I don't know what that's supposed to mean, but if I were you, I would do what she says."

Shawn laughs, "Noted," he reaches out to grab my hand, and I let him, "I've got a surprise for you tonight."

I smile and object, "I told you not to buy me anything!"

"I didn't buy it; it's a hand-me-down I guess. But I might as well give it to you now." With that said, he reaches for the back pocket of his jeans and pulls out a small black box. Before I can object, he takes the lid off and reveals a necklace, with a beautifully colored light purple gemstone as the pendant. Shawn takes the necklace out of the box and holds it out to me and I take it.

As I examine the gemstone, I say, "It's beautiful Shawn! What kind of stone is this?"

"It's called Taaffreite. It's probably one of the rarest gemstones in the world and I want you to have it." I open my mouth to reject it but I close it, not knowing what to say.

Shawn takes the necklace from me and orders me and I do so. "Do you want me to take off your other necklace for you?" he asks.

At first I didn't know what he was talking about then I remembered what I wearing. I actually forget that I was wearing Daniel's mother's necklace. Even after we broke up, I didn't want to take it off and forget about it; there was something about leaving it behind that felt wrong. I promised Daniel that I would wear it and make sure nothing happened to it. I could take it off just for one day I guess.

I unclasp the necklace from around my neck and carefully placed it on the table. Shawn takes that as a signal to place his gift around my neck and clasps it together. "You know," he starts off, "You never told me the story behind that necklace."

"It's just an heirloom. It means a lot to me because someone who was very special to me gave it to me," I lie. I didn't want Shawn to know about Daniel or any of my past experiences, being with Shawn will be a new start for me. I didn't want to screw it up by bringing up the past.

"Oh," is all Shawn says. I turn back around so that I'm facing him and I kiss him on the cheek, "Thank you for the gift, it's stunning."

"You're welcome," he says as he kisses my lips softly. Our lips become in sync until the school bell rings, signaling the students that class starts in 5 minutes. Shawn softly groans as he pulls his face away from mine.

I turn my body so I'm facing the white board in front of the classroom and I can't help but feel like I betrayed Daniel and his mother by taking off the necklace as I examine the cameo on the pendant. I start feeling the smoothness of the surface as I think of Daniel's mother. Wondering what she was like, what she looked like and if she would have approved of me for her son. Probably not since I could never meet Daniel's standards, whatever they might be. She was probably a beautiful person just like Daniel.

I shouldn't be thinking of Daniel or his mother when I happy with Shawn. But there was something about thinking of Daniel that made me feel completely happy and safe. I just needed to talk to him one last time and I would be content.

* * *

><p>Rachel and I are in my bedroom looking through my closest to find me an outfit for wherever we're going tonight. Rachel throws back some of my party dresses onto my bed but I don't really pay attention to what she's picking out. I find myself the pair of heels I wore to Prom, and I decide to wear those, they'll go with anything Rachel picks out for me.<p>

"Why are you so quiet? Are you nervous about where we're going tonight?" Rachel questions me while she continues going through my closest.

"I don't know. And maybe if I had an idea where we were going, I would be able to get nervous," I smile.

"You might not like it, but, I think that you need it to loosen up." She looks at me over her shoulder and smiles. A.K.A it's somewhere I'm really going to hate.

"Are you going to tell me now? I've waited all day for you to tell me, and so has Shawn. So, spill it, where are we going tonight Rachel?"

She groans, "Fine." Rachel walks over to me with a dress in hand. My dress from last year, a deep purple dress with a braided necklace halter neck with a sexy backless drape, and a fitted bottom. She hands it over to me, "You're going to wear this at Necto tonight."

At first, I had no idea what she was talking about and then it hits me, Necto, the nightclub in Ann Harbor Michigan. Rachel and I had a friend who went partying there every night nonstop until he eventually had to be banned from the place for God knows what. I shake my head, "No Rachel, we're not going to a club especially since my mom's home. Besides, how do you expect us to get in?"

Rachel smirks, "I don't know how Shawn is going to get in but you and I have a way." Before I could ask what way that would be, she pulls out to I.D cards from her pocket. "Remember when I got these? We can _finally_ put them in use."

"Rachel," I say warily, "its way too risky. You know that part of town isn't the safest, plus, we could get caught and be sent to juvie." There was no way I was going to end up in jail just for one night of fun.

She throws her arms up in the air, "C'mon! Since when do we do anything like this? Seriously? And you deserve a night out like this so sit back and enjoy the ride!" She makes a pouty face with those puppy dog eyes, "Please, if you're worried about getting caught, we won't. We look older than what ages we really are, it'll work perfectly. I promise!"

I consider the options and she was right, they wouldn't catch us since I looked older than 18; Rachel and I looked like we were in our earlier 20's.

I think about it for a minute until I finally agree to Rachel's plea. "Alright, but you have to promise that we'll be out of there before midnight."

Rachel jumps up and squeals in excitement, "I promise! See this is why you're my best friend, you're the goody two shoes and I'm the bad girl who corrupts your mind." I laugh as she picks out my dress that I wore to Shawn and I's first dinner together off of my bed. "So, I'm going to get ready in the bathroom and Shawn better get here soon for his sake." With that being said, she walks away into the hallway towards the bathroom.

Once she leaves, I close the door behind her and start to prepare for what might end up being one of the best nights of my life or one of the worst nights of my life.


	13. Chapter 13

_Chapter 13_

After almost an hour and a half of driving, Shawn, Rachel, and I finally pull up into the Necto parking lot. Shawn eventually finds a parking spot close enough to the entrance and parks his truck. It was a good thing that Shawn was 18 or otherwise he wouldn't have been allowed to enter the club. We reach the door and pay our entry fee, Rachel and I's $5, Shawn's $8 since he was younger than 21.

When we walk into the Main Room, we are overwhelmed with the booming of the music playing. The speakers by the DJ blaring out a club remix of Dancing in the Dark by Dev. I look over to the dance floor, illuminated by the strobe lights hanging from the ceiling and I see bodies grinding to the beat of the music. My eyes hover across the dance floor to over my left and that's when I see the bar, also light up with shades of pinks and blues.

I notice that Rachel's eyes light up when her eyes reach the bar. She looks over to me with excitement in her eyes as she asks me smiling, "What do you want to do first? Dance or drink? I say drink, please say drink!"

I wait before answering, thinking about what would make more sense. Drinking first would make more sense since we would be dancing afterwards, making the alcohol's effects wear off quicker. "Drink first, and then we dance." I announce with a smile on my face. I look back at Shawn who was a little distant. "Is that fine with you?"

"Yeah, of course. I need to go to the bathroom anyways; I'll meet you on the dance floor." With that being said he walks towards the bathrooms near the bar.

"What's up with him?" Rachel questions.

I frown as I watch him walk into the bathroom, "I don't know." I look back to Rachel, smiling, "Well, are we going to stand here all night or are we going to drink?"

She jumps up and down, grabs my hand and leads me over to the bar, "That's my girl, have I corrupted you this much?"

I laugh, "No, I just think I need a night like this." We finally reach the bar and take a seat onto the bar stools. When we take our seat, a female bartender comes up to us, "ID's."

Rachel and I both look in our hand purses in search of our fake ID's. When I find mine, I pull it out and hand it over to the bartender's outstretched hand. Her hand is still out waiting for Rachel to hand over her I.D. Finally, Rachel finds it and hands it over to her.

I hold my breath and keep a calm composure as the bartender examines our I.D's, but really, I'm nervous. I didn't want to get caught with something so serious. I glance over at Rachel and she looks completely calm and collective; the way I hope I was looking.

The bartender gives us our I.D's back, "Since its Thursday, College Night, shots and beer is half off. What will it be ladies?"

"I'll just take a shot Skyy Vodka." Rachel says.

"Same," I tell the bartender. She then walks off to the other end of the bar places two shot glasses on the bar table top and tips a bottle of Skyy vodka down into the glasses. The bartender walks over back to us with the glasses in hand, and sets them down in front of us. "That'll be $4," Rachel pulls out her credit card, "Just put it on my tab, I'll pay by the end of the night."

"Alright, let me know if you want more." With that said she walks off to others on the end of the bar.

My attention goes over to Rachel as I raise my glass, "Here's to being young and to being a year older." Our glasses clink together and we both tilt our heads back, throwing back the vodka in our mouths. I can feel the burning as it goes down my throat and it feels familiar. I smile and continue looking at Rachel as I put the glass onto the bar. "How was that for loosen things up?"

She smiles and nods "Could use some work. How about another shot?" Before I could respond, Rachel calls out when she leans over the bar table top, "Bartender! Another round of shots over here please!" I pull her back onto the bar stool, afraid that her dress was going to pop off of her any second. She was wearing a very low cut dress, the cut down to her belly button showing the area between her breasts and the dress was so short that if she bent over, her panties would show.

"Rachel!" I try to whisper over the music hoping she would hear me, "Don't do anything stupid tonight, please." I say this with kindness and compassion; I didn't want her to be kicked out or anything.

Rachel opens her mouth to say something but she's interrupted by the bartender, "What will it be?" Rachel doesn't say anything to her but just looks at me, waiting for an answer from me.

"Umm, we'll just have two Miller Lite bottles, thanks." She reaches down underneath the bar and pulls out two beers, pops the bottle caps off with no problem and hands them to us and walks off again to the other side of the bar.

Rachel immediately takes a sip of beer, and takes notice of my necklace Shawn gave to me, "What is that? How come I've never seen that on you before?"

"Oh, this," I hold the stone between my thumb and index finger, "Shawn gave it to me today for my birthday. Isn't it beautiful?" I ask smiling. I lean forward towards Rachel for her to get a better look of it, when she does, I lean back.

"Damn, looks expensive. The man's got money, which makes him even better," she says jokingly when she takes another sip from the cold beer bottle.

"He didn't buy it though, it was an heirloom passed and he thought he would give it to me. Shawn also said it's extremely rare so I couldn't bear to lose it." I take a sip of beer; I feel the bubbly sensation like what someone gets from drinking pop except slightly less bubbly.

Rachel is about to say something until she stops and frowns at the waitress, for she sets down a drink in front of me that I didn't order. "I didn't order this?" I say with a question in my voice.

"I know," the bartender says matter of knowingly, "Someone ordered it for you, and he wanted me to tell you that you looked gorgeous."

"Who ordered it for me? And what is it?" I frown, confused. Why would someone do that for me? It seemed weird and inappropriate to me.

"I can't say, I'll give you a hint to wear he is," She points to the right side of me towards the corner of the crowd of dancing bodies, "He's over there with a blonde chick. He ordered you a Raspberry Royal Cocktail, it has Raspberry vodka, champagne, and garnished with raspberries. It's the best in the house, enjoy." Again, she walks away without a word.

I just looked at the cocktail glass, skeptical to drink the bubbly liquid. Out of nowhere, Rachel takes the drink and takes a sip, "Mmm, this is really good! I think I'll order one myself after this beer." She starts trying to chug the beer as she does, I take my drink from her and take a sip for myself, surprised that how good it was.

I take the glass up to my lips another time until I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn to see who it was, assuming it was Shawn but when I see who it is, I drop my glass. Thankfully, it wasn't lifted far from the table top so it didn't break; all that happened was a little spill of the sweet beverage.

I'm staring at Daniel, gaping at him wondering why the hell he's here and what makes him think that I want to talk to him… ever. I steal a glance over at Rachel and her jaw is practically on the floor. Both of us thought we would never see him again and in a way, we were glad about that. But right now, I can't even tell Daniel to get lost, words have escaped me. I can't say the same for Rachel.

Her jaw snaps back shut and gives him a nasty look, "Why are _you_ here? I suggest you get out before I get Shawn…"

Daniel looks at Rachel and slightly frowns with his smug smile, "Whose Shawn?"

Rachel smiles slightly, showing Daniel that she has confidence, "Shawn is Lauren's _boyfriend_, he took your place and quite frankly, she's doing so much better _without_ you. So go away before I call him over, he can totally kick your ass."

'No he can't' I say in my head. Since Daniel is a vampire, he's one hundred times stronger than a human, Shawn didn't stand a chance. I can't take my eyes off of Daniel when he looks back at me, it's like I'm in a trance. All I wanted to do is punch him in the face but I couldn't bring myself to do it.

While still looking at me, Daniel tells Rachel, "Why don't you run off and let Lauren and I talk for a minute."

Rachel makes a snorting noise, "You're delusional if you think I'm leaving Lauren alone with you…"

Daniel snaps his head in the direction of Rachel and repeats with a slight amount of venom in his voice, "I said, give Lauren and me a minute alone. In the mean time, why don't you go off and find some guy to keep you company." His attention turns back to me.

I look to Rachel for what her reaction instead she says, "You know, I think that you guys need a minute alone." She gets off the stool and tells me with a small smile, "I'll be dancing in the mean time." Without even acknowledging Daniel, she walks off towards the crowd.

"Stop doing that," I murmur, looking away into the cocktail glass in front of me. I can feel his smile when I said this to him. I glare at him and demand, "Why are you here?"

Daniel sighs and I can feel the weight of him as he leans against the bar, "Last time, I'm over 21 while you aren't. So I should be the one asking you that question."

"Fine, why are you here at the bar, next to me, talking to me? Is that clear enough for you?"

He smiles, "I thought we could catch up, if you want."

"And what in the hell makes you think that I want to catch up with you? I see that you don't care since you're with some blonde chick," I confront him, figuring that he must have been the one to send me the drink just to be funny, the typical dick person I knew. "Shouldn't you be going back to her?"

"Maybe, but, I don't feel like going back yet. Regardless if I'm here with someone, I would just _love _to know who this Shawn kid who can 'kick my ass'." He does quotation marks in the air, quoting what Rachel said earlier.

I roll my eyes at him. He was being ridiculous, I don't know what his intentions were but whatever they were, they must not be good. Maybe he was just screwing around with me to be an asshole. "Someone that isn't your concern, so, leave it alone."

He puts his hands up, "Hey, I'm just asking. I'm just curious to what you've been doing for the past month, no need to get defensive." I take a gulp of the cocktail he bought me, "I knew you would like that drink, it's fruity… just like this Shawn guy."

I scowl at him, "Fine, Shawn is my _boyfriend_ so stop asking about him. Seriously Daniel, just go away and leave me alone. You never had a problem with doing it before; you can easily do it again."

"Maybe I don't want to this time," Daniel says so sweetly and genuinely as he pulls out a rose from a flower bouquet and hands it to me.

I just look at him for a minute, wondering what he really meant by that. I look down at the rose he's holding out to me then slowly, I put my hand out and take it. I tilt my head down and smell the sweet scent of the rose. "Would you care to explain what's so different now than all the other times?"

He smirks, "Wouldn't you like to know..." Daniel sighs and says, "Maybe it's the fact that you're unavailable and it presents a challenge for me. You know how much I like a challenge and when you play hard to get." He winks at me but I don't budge.

"Shouldn't you be with your date or something?"

Daniel shrugs, "I should, but I'm not going to right at the minute. I'd much prefer being here with you."

For some odd reason, when he said he would rather be with me, it gave me butterflies in my stomach. The butterflies felt the same way whenever Daniel would touch me or kiss me, I shouldn't feel them but they're clearly there since it feels like I'm getting sick. "I think you should go and leave me alone."

"And what if I said no and that I still wanted to talk to you?"

"She said leave her alone," I hear Shawn's deep voice coming from behind me; he sounded agitated and pissed off.

Daniel stands up straight stepping in front of Shawn. Daniel clearly over towered Shawn but Shawn had more muscle than he did. Still, I knew Shawn had no chance against him but he didn't know that and I wasn't about to go tell him the reason why. "I suggest you back up before things get very ugly for you," Daniel says harshly.

"No, _you_ back off before things get ugly for _you_," Shawn retorts back.

I get up off of my barstool and put myself in between Daniel and Shawn. I realized I was facing myself towards Daniel so I turn around so that I was facing Shawn. "Shawn, calm down, he's not worth it okay? So let's go out onto the dance floor and have a good time."

I take his hand and drag him off onto the dance floor, until he's the one leading the way. I steal a glance back at Daniel and his expression is blank before he walks off to the other side of the crowd.

I'm so glad that nothing escalated especially here at a club, was Daniel that stupid to cause a scene like that in front of people? It was bad enough he was here at the same time as me. Even though I feel that it wasn't coincidental.

I smile and wave towards Rachel before Shawn leads me into the crowd. She was at one of the tables at the end of the dance floor, sitting and talking with a good looking guy that looks sort of like Brad Pitt

Shawn eventually leads us to the edge of the dancing crowd who were dancing to a club remix of Rihanna's song of We Found Love. He pulls me into his arms and we start dancing to the beat, our bodies start to move in rhythm. I smile and shout over the music, "You're a great dancer, I didn't this before why?"

Shawn smiles and jokingly says, "Well, I like to keep that part under wraps. I thought it would be too much for you to handle."

I laugh, "So, who was that guy talking to you at the bar?" He asks me so suddenly.

My face becomes serious right away, "Oh, well, he is just an old friend I guess if that's what you want to call it. But we kind of gone our separate ways, I was just surprised to see him, that's all."

Before Shawn says anything, I notice from across the dance floor, not too far away from Shawn and I was Daniel dancing with some blonde girl. I couldn't see her face since her back side was facing Daniel. It disgusted and infuriated me seeing her butt rubbing against his parts as they moved their hips with the music. I could feel my cheeks become flushed from anger and Shawn notices since he asks, "What's wrong?"

I don't say anything but just keep staring at what I see of the girl; it was more like glowering. He then follows my gaze to see who I was looking that. Shawn knows right away who I was looking at and glares, "He's not worth it Lauren."

I look to Daniel and the moment I do, he turns his head and notices me, smirks and continues grinding with the blonde skank. I roll my eyes and look back over to Shawn. I give him a small smile of reassurance and continue dancing with him. Out of the corner of my eye I notice Daniel watching me and that's when I change things up a bit between Shawn and I's dancing; to make Daniel jealous the way he's making me jealous. I place my legs on either side of his thigh and start moving my hips almost rapidly near close to his area.

Shawn doesn't mind the change in the dancing pattern because he moves his hips slightly back. Once again, I steal a glance over to Daniel and catch him looking at me before he quickly looks away. I smile to myself, knowing that it's working by me doing this with Shawn is getting to him.

But when I look back over at Daniel, I can finally see the blonde's face; it's Jackie. My jaw practically hits the floor as I see Daniel place his hands on either side of her face and crushes her face to his. I watch them make out for a couple more seconds until I can't take it anymore. I get off of Shawn and run away towards the exit without saying goodbye to him. I hear Shawn calling out my name but I don't care, I just needed to get away as I felt the tears starting to fall from my eyes.

I burst through the exit doors, almost hitting someone. They curse and tell me to watch it; I give my apologies then jog over to an alley nearby to be alone with my thoughts.

Why would Daniel do that right in front of me? Why did he want to make me jealous? He didn't care about me anymore, that was obvious but why would he try to talk to me and get me jealous of Jackie? And what was worse was that the girl was Jackie; he could have kissed any other girl but no, he chooses Jackie the girl who tried to kill me months ago.

I lean against the alley's brick wall, and cover my eyes so no one would notice that I was crying. I was so hurt and upset and embarrassed right now that I couldn't bear to go back into the club to face Shawn and Daniel.

Suddenly, I hear the sound of something moving deeper in the alley. I immediately get off the wall; I was leaning on and stand in the middle of the alley, facing towards the sound. "Who's there?" I call out.

I hear the noises getting closer to me, and I can feel my heart beat rapidly. I was close to running out of the alley until I see what I assumed was causing the noises. A white cat with black splotches of black on it comes running out of the darkness chasing a mouse.

I breathe a sigh of relief. It was a good thing it was a cat, especially in this neighborhood. I come to the conclusion that I should leave to go back to the club regardless of my tears still streaming down my face. I turn to walk back to Necto, when I run into something hard.

I look up to see what I ran into but before I can see, a huge hand covers my mouth. I try to scream and pull the hand off of my face but then soon, everything goes to black around me and I'm forced to stop fighting back.


	14. Chapter 14

_Chapter 14_

I wake up to the smell of something musty and stale. My nostrils burn with the smell but as I continue to wake up, I recognize the smell as cigarette. I open my eyes to take a look at my surroundings but my eyes become overwhelmed with the smoke. I close them quickly and rub my eyes to try and help the burning go away. It isn't very affective.

Eventually, when I'm lying on the cold hard surface of what I assumed to be a tile floor, the burning from my eyes goes away and I open my eyes.

I'm in what appears to be an apartment or a trailer, a crappy one at that. The ceiling had water stains, the walls were torn up so that the insulation from inside the walls was peeking out. I was clearly in the living room/kitchen, the two rooms connected and not too far where I was now sitting up, there were 3 men sitting in chairs around an old, wooden, and beaten up dining table. The men were laughing as they were smoking their cigars and cigarettes, along with their scotch as they played poker.

They obviously didn't notice me waking up until I moved, making a noise underneath the broken tile that lay beneath me. The 3 men look up from their cards and up to me with no expressions until one with a fedora and a suit comes over to me.

I frantically back away from the man until he speeds up catching me by grabbing my hair tightly, preventing me from moving. Tears sting my eyes as he lifts me up by the hair until I'm finally standing up, but, he doesn't let go. "What do you want from me?" I ask desperate for answers, I've never met these men before. What was their intention with me? I was too shaken up to think beyond that question.

"Easy," the man says with a smirk on his face, "You have a reward on your head," he sighs, "But the sad part is that you need to be alive… for now."

"What do you mean?" I barely whisper, hoping that he didn't hear me.

But he did. When I stepped back ever so slightly, he throws me down to the floor. "Exactly what I said, you have quite an amount of cash on your head." He crouches down in front of me so he's looking directly in my eyes. "What did you do to piss off the Velknar pack?"

I don't answer right away for the pain on my back is intense from the force of the man as he threw me down. I shallow hard and whisper, "Who are the Velknar pack?"

He gives out a short laugh, "Don't play stupid. You clearly pissed off those Washington werewolves or else they wouldn't have a reason to be after you."

I frown, werewolves don't exist do they? If vampires exist, I don't doubt that werewolves would also. But what would werewolves want with me? I'm just an ordinary human, nothing special about me other than I've had a vampire boyfriend. I don't think many girls are able to say that. Other than that, I have no connection to the supernatural.

I remain calm, or try to anyway. I keep my composure hoping that Shawn will find me and come with policemen. I try to block the pain on my spine as I slightly tilt my body to the right to help keep pressure off my back. "Are you part of their pack then?" I manage to ask.

"Actually, I'm a vampire and so are my friends here." He gestures to the two other men at the table, playing without him. "So, I suggest you don't run like you're trying to plan right now." I furrow my brow, "And no, I don't think your boyfriend or the cops will find you."

I mouth opens slightly, how did he know that I was thinking of Shawn and my plan to escape? Unless he mined controlling me right now to tell him the truth. "How did you know that I was thinking of my boyfriend?"

"You should know that vampires have special abilities. I mean, you dated one; Daniel wasn't that his name?"

My heart stops when I hear the man mention Daniel. He couldn't have possibly known that from my mind because I haven't thought of him the whole time, right? Or maybe Daniel was known in the area, especially here in this small town, word travels fast. But no one knows about Daniel's secret but me, with the exception of that slut Jackie. "How do you know him?"

He gives me a small smile, "Besides the fact that you were thinking about him the whole time you were unconscious, yeah, I know him. I knew him when he was still living in Paris and may I say he was not a walk in the park."

"What do you mean?"

He laughs darkly, "It was a century ago and he was just a wreck; killing people nonstop, the funny thing was that he liked killing people, no remorse. You see, vampires don't need to kill as much as he did. I must say, Daniel impressed me with his methods." He searches my face to see my reaction. When he sees my disgusted expression he says, "He's boring now, I heard he got bored with killing people and that he was starting his life anew in Lamia. That's when he met you."

I just look at him, not knowing what I could say to the surprising news I just received. The Daniel I knew wouldn't hurt anyone unless they hurt me physically. I didn't want to believe this man but I had a feeling that he was telling the truth. After all, I didn't know his past life other than his mother and father, and how Daniel became what he was today. "Why are you telling me this about Daniel?"

He smirks, "Why not? It's not like you care about him." The man gets up and walks back and forth while looking at me, "Or do you? Let me tell you something, he isn't on good terms right now especially with some of the vampires. He was protecting or still is protecting you from us and he's not the only one doing it. It's something that we vampires don't want. So I may be tempted to drive a stake through his heart when all is said and done."

I furrow my brow in confusion. Daniel was protecting me? How? I thought he left town for good and who else is protecting me? Daniel shouldn't be protecting me if it meant that his life was in danger, I wouldn't allow it. Regardless of the resentment I feel towards him. I wanted to save him no matter what he put me through.

I look up to the man with hatred in my eyes as I tell him, "Screw you, don't you dare touch him."

Before I had time to blink, I suddenly have the wind knocked out of me and a gut wrenching feeling, and then the sharp pain in my midsection starts. It takes me awhile to register what just happened; the man kicked me in my stomach, hard.

I curled myself into a ball at first but then I unravel myself knowing that it wasn't helping. Tears begin to stream done my face, the pain starting to become unbearable. "Why?" I can barely say without gasping for air.

"You said 'screw you' and it offended me," he says with a smug look upon his face. I glare up at him through my tears. Just then, he grabs my arm and drags me over to the semi-lit up side of the room. He stops dragging me until we reach pipes going through the floor and ceiling. "Just to make sure that you won't be able to attempt to escape." The man then pulls out a pair of handcuffs from his back pocket, puts one of side of the cuff on my left wrist. I clear the click of the cuff locking in place. Soon, I hear the click of the other cuff around the pipe.

The man doesn't say anything when he walks away and joins his friends. Once he reaches the table, he sits down, and continues playing as if I never interrupted in the first place.

I remain silent for what feels like hours. Shaking in the chilly air, scared, alone, and having no idea what will become of me; I was too afraid to ask any more questions. I can still feel the pain on my stomach, it's throbbing and I know that there is going to be a bruise. Hopefully, there was no internal damage done to me.

I close my eyes and take deep breaths as I try to listen in on the group of vampire's conversation, but all I hear is their boisterous laugher echoing through the abandoned house or where ever we were.

As I continue sitting there trying to bare the pain as it slowly feels better the longer I sit there. After what was I assumed an hour I finally come up with an idea to attempt my escape. I ask the men "Is there a bathroom around here? I need to go." I really didn't, hopefully this could be an opportunity to escape. Maybe there was a window in the bathroom I could crawl out of.

Soon, I hear the creaking of the floor boards under someone's wait as they walked over to me. Until I hear the voice, I realize it wasn't the man with the fedora and it that made me worry; hoping that this man was a little nicer than him. As he got closer, I see that it is the bald man from the table, "If you try to do anything, I won't hesitate to break a bone…" He warns me.

I nod reluctantly, "Yes sir." I say quickly, getting a little bit nervous about trying this. But he ends of releasing me from the pipe with the handcuff still around my wrist. He pulls my arm to make me get up from my place on the floor. Next thing I know, he's guiding me to the bathroom.

Once we reach our destination, he pushes me to the floor inside and slams the door behind me. I quickly lift myself off of the floor and look around me. I curse to myself, for there are no windows or any other way I could get out of here. It was a crummy bathroom with a rusted sink and toilet with some sort of other stains on it. There was no way I was going to get near that thing.

I finally walk over to the sink and open up the doors underneath the sink, finding nothing but a bottle of Clorax that clearly hasn't been used. I sigh when I close the doors and out of nowhere I hear a crash of something big outside the door, causing me to jump. The sound came from the area by the group of men.

I rush over to the door opening it with caution. I don't see anyone in the little hallway or hear any voices. Slowly I move down the hallway to investigate what the source of the noise was, the floorboards creaking underneath my feet.

Suddenly, I hear a creak behind me, whipping my head around, I see the man in the fedora hat. The next thing I know my back is against his front and he has me in a choke hold, making it hard for me to breathe. "Take one more step and I snap her neck," he orders to someone in the dark.

I swallow hard as I hear the creaking of the floorboards in front of me get closer. The figure reveals himself in the dim lighting; I am shocked to see Daniel standing in front of me.

He had his hands up in the air up to his shoulders, dropping a wooden stake. Daniel just looks at me with a longing look but his attention goes up to the man. "Don't, just give her to me and I'll let you live. I don't want to hurt you Harris, but if you don't let her go I'm afraid I have to."

Harris laughs, "You can't hurt me as long as I have her, and we both know that; so I suggest you leave."

"Not without Lauren. Please Harris," Daniel pleads, "If this is about Jackie, I don't care, she is all yours but don't do this. I know you Harris and you wouldn't be able to kill anyone. You felt guilty when you killed that man when you first changed and you haven't since."

The look upon Daniel's face breaks my heart; he looks hurt, pained, and longing for Harris to understand. He couldn't be this upset over me; after all he didn't care about me, he never did and he never will. I finally put my hands up on Harris's arm around my neck, and try to push it off. But it's no use; he is stronger than me by a long shot.

Harris basically ignores what Daniel has to say and squeezes his grasp tighter around my throat. "I can break her like a twig. I may not kill her but I can break torture her, making her cry out in pain. You would like wouldn't you?"

Anger is added into the mix of emotions on his face and the next thing I know, I'm released from Harris's grasp with my back on the floor. I look over to my left and see Harris against the wall, with Daniel's hand tightly around his throat. "Nobody," Daniel hisses, "threatens anyone I care about; going after Lauren, bad move. I don't care about our past friendship, you brought this upon yourself." With that being said, Daniel takes the hand not around Harris's throat and punches it into his chest. When his hand emerges out of Harris's chest, he's holding something bloody. That's when I realize, it's his heart. I look up to Harris but his face is blank, his eyes still open but not moving; he was dead.

Daniel tosses the heart over his shoulder and wipes the blood off his hands with Harris's shirt until there was no more blood present on his hand. He rushes over to me, kneels down beside me and places his hand on my cheek, "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

I nod, "Yeah, just my stomach and slightly my back." I pretend that his hand isn't on me right now and just lift myself off of the floor. I ignore the hand Daniel holds out to me to help me up, "Thanks for helping me." I say genuinely, if it wasn't for him, I would be dead right now.

"You're welcome," Daniel gives me a small smile, "C'mon, I'll take you home." He walks away before I can respond and I follow him.

"Actually," I intervene, "I'm going back to Necto for Shawn and Rachel. Thank for the offer though." Daniel steps over a body before he leaves the building and I do the same; noticing the stake in the bald man's chest. I step over him and rush to keep up to Daniel.

"I think you're too late for that. They left the club when they decided to go looking for you."

I frown, thinking of why they didn't call me and I realized that I didn't have my purse with me. Finally, Daniel and I reach his car, he opens the passenger door for me but I don't go in. Instead I stretch my hand out to him, "Let me use your phone."

He rolls his eyes, "Fine," he says as he fishes the phone out of his jeans and places it in my hand.

I immediately dial Rachel's number and she picks up on the 2nd ring. "Hello?"

"Rachel?"

"Lauren? Is that you? Where are you? We have been calling your phone for hours now! I'll come pick you up!"

"Actually, I have a ride home I don't have time to explain but meet me at your house in a couple hours," before I could say anything else the phone clicks. I frown when I see the phone lost service. I give the phone back to Daniel.

He raises his eyebrows, "Well, what's it going to be?"

"Take me home," I order as I climb into the passenger seat, "And no funny business on the ride back to Lamia."

Daniel is already in the car before I have a chance to close my own door. "I'll try my best," he says with a smirk on his face. The engine roars to life, Daniel steps on the gas and we speed past the abandoned apartment building. I try to mentally prepare myself for the possibilities of what may happen between Daniel and I on our way home.


	15. Chapter 15

_Chapter 15_

When Daniel and I are finally on the highway, I breathe out a sigh of relief. Relieve that all this madness is over with. But why do I feel like that it's only the beginning? I brush off the feeling and continue staring out at the side of highway towards the trees lost in thought. One of the strange parts of today was when I watched Daniel kill Harris; I wasn't repulsed or disgusted by it. Maybe it was the fact that I died only months ago and that I've seen my ex-boyfriend kill someone before he killed Harris. Whatever the reason, I felt guilty for not feeling anything; it felt like I should have felt sorry for Harris but I didn't feel that.

Thinking of Harris makes me wonder what about his and Daniel's past relationship like Daniel was talking about just before he killed him. I decide to break the silence, "Thank you for getting me out of there. But how did you know where I was?" I don't look over at him like I wanted to; I couldn't bring myself to look him in the eye yet. I just continue looking out at the dark trees.

"Well a couple minutes after you stormed out, I tried looking for you. I found your purse on the ground and that's when I knew something wasn't right. That's when I saw Shane and Rachel looking around the place for you, another sign of your disappearance," Daniel states with no emotion in his voice.

"First of all, it's Shawn. Second of all, that doesn't answer my question. How did you find me?" I question without looking at him.

"I looked in the most obvious places, assuming that it was either a vampire or a werewolf that took you. They would obviously choose a vacant house or apartment. I looked in a few places that looked pretty vacant but nothing, until I found that apartment back there. I could hear your heart beating and faintly hear you talking with Harris."

"Oh," is all I could really say. It seemed believable he had no reason to hid anything, did he? Now that Harris was brought up, I decided it was a good time to ask him about their past, "What was it with you and Harris? What happened between you two in the past? You don't have to answer if you don't want to, it's your choice."

He laughs, "If you're worried about hurting my feelings or bringing up unwanted memories, spare me the pity." He sighed and his tone goes from joking, to serious, "Harris found me shortly after my creator left me, I was lost and confused with what I was. I had no one to help me through it and I did… some things that I regret. But Harris changed me for the better and we became good friends until Jackie." He pauses for a moment, probably lost in thought, "Jackie, she seduced us both for her own selfish needs but in the end, she chose me and Harris couldn't handle it so he tried to kill me. But when he failed to do so, he left and I haven't seen him since until tonight of course."

I finally turn my head around to face him, "He mentioned the past but wasn't specific enough. While I was held captive; he said that you were a serial killer with a bloodlust and that you actually enjoyed it; is that true? Is that what you meant by 'some things'?"

Daniel's breath-taking green eyes pierce through mine as he tells me, "Yes, that was what I meant by some things. I'm ashamed to admit it but I killed people for game; like they were the game and I was the poacher hunting them."

I swallow hard and start to worry a little bit, but I reassure myself he wouldn't hurt me. He had ever chance and opportunity to and never took it. Despite everything, I still trusted him, "How did you stop then if your bloodlust was so strong?"

He glances back at the road then his attention immediately comes back to me, "I don't think you want to hear it. I'll spare you the story." With that being said, his attention goes back to the road ahead of us.

Now that I'm curious to know what the story was, I say in a hushed tone, "I want to know, no matter how long the story is." I needed to know that he wasn't the same heartless killer he was centuries ago, I needed to know for sure he wouldn't hurt me. The only way of knowing that would have to be him being able to bring up the past.

Daniel doesn't answer or look at me right away; instead, he continues to look out onto the road. After a minute or so, he finally looks at me, "It was about 1943 that was the year I decided to leave Europe for good and move to America, try to start a new life there. Once I arrived in Massachusetts, that clearly wasn't the case," he softly laughs to himself but I don't smile or laugh about it. I knew he was talking about his killing sprees.

He quickly stops laughing at himself when he sees that I wasn't amused and continues, "One night in about 10 years later, I was lurking in the shadows of an alley waiting for a woman to seduce and kill at a moment she wouldn't expect or a man I could instantly kill with my bare hands." He looks back over to me and mumbles sorry once he sees my repulsed, shocked face.

It disgusted me that he was able to talk about killing innocent men and woman with no problem. I guess he was just so used to it that he didn't think of what I would have though. "It's okay," I assure him calmly, "Go on."

Daniel clears his throat and continues on with the story, "I was waiting for my… victims, and when a woman came past the alley, I sought to it that she was my…meal." He looks to me for approval to continue, and when I nod he goes on, "Instead of seducing her, I went straight for the kill and as I was feeding on her I noticed a little boy right across the alleyway. It was clearly the boy's mother I was feeding on, he looked exactly like her except the hair length." I notice a change in his eyes as he looks off to the road, it was a look of compassion and hurt. "When I saw that boy's face, full of fear and tears dripping from his face." He paused for a minute and shook his head as if he was trying to erase the memory, "He reminded me of myself when I watched my mother die right in front of me. That was something we had in common but what was so different was that I was the one killing. I didn't want anyone to feel the pain I felt when that happened to me. So, I dumped the mother's body, taking the boy with me so I could make him forget everything. That boy had the luxury of forgetting but I can't, I never will forget, it will forever haunt me. All the killing and the suffering I caused, I can't undo any of it; and what's so sad is that I had to kill a boy's mother to see how wrong murdering was after a century of killing nonstop."

I was completely speechless; I had no idea what I could say to everything he confessed to me. I felt glad that Daniel was able to tell me all of this; I knew how painful it must have been for him to bring up the past like that. I was also glad about the fact that he wasn't hiding his emotions like he had before. I reach my hand over to him and place it on his shoulder, "I'm so sorry," I say sincerely, "No one should ever go through something so traumatizing. It wasn't your fault you didn't ask for this to happen to you, it just did."

He glances down at my hand placed on his shoulder but looks at me with a hurt and guilty expression, "But I could have chosen to stop being a killer but I didn't. I took the easy way out."

"So what if you did? That was only for a period of time, at least you finally realized that the way of living before was wrong. You've learned from your mistakes and I'm proud of you for that." I didn't realize that I leaned into Daniel a little too close for comfort. I remove my hand from his shoulder and return to my side of the car.

He just looks ahead and pretends that our little moment didn't happen, "Thanks." I hear him say but I swore that he said something before, along the lines of 'Wish I could say the same for you' but I wasn't sure.

"You're welcome," I say with a small smile, "Did you say something else?"

He shakes his head, "No."

"Oh," I reply back. If he really said that to me, what did he mean by it?

I just forget about it and change the subject, "Harris told me about a pack name the Velknar pack and how there is a reward for my capture… would you care to explain?" I knew that he must have known what I was talking about since Harris also told me that Daniel was still protecting me even after he left town. Maybe that's how he knew where I was tonight.

Daniel's expression doesn't change other than a confused frown on his face, "He did? Who is the Velknar pack?"

"I don't know I was hoping you would tell me."

"And what makes you think I know anything about it?"

I frown, "Just tell me, I know that you know. Harris said so; he said that you were protecting me from any of the werewolves and vampires who came near me. Please, just tell me I need to know."

"Harris was known as a liar too, so I think you should just drop it," he says a little too harshly.

I glare at him and sigh, "See, you wouldn't tell me to drop it if you didn't know. So tell me right now. How am I connected to the Velknar pack or the vampires coming after me for this reward for my capture? I have a right to know after what you did tonight." I start to raise my voice out of anger and frustration

He laughs and defensively says, "I saved your life tonight, I don't owe you an explanation to anything. What did I do that was so wrong, huh?"

"You know what you did! You kissed Jackie right in front of me! You _know_ how I feel about her, the girl who almost killed you and I and you act like you're okay with it!"

Daniel smiles, "I get it, you're angry because you're jealous." He gazes over at me when I say nothing, "Am I right?"

"No!" I quickly deny, which makes his smile become even wider. "Even if I was why would you care? Wasn't that your intention in the first place, to make me jealous?"

"Hey, all I did was what I wanted to do. It wasn't because of you or anything, not everything is about you. Not everyone is revolving their life and intentions around you."

I didn't think that way at all, he was trying to make me look like a self-centered person. I wasn't, "Nice try, you're trying to change the subject but it's not going to work. You're not going to away so easily, so tell me about the Velknar pack. And don't avoid the question because I'm just going to keep asking you," I inform him confidently.

He sighs, "Fine, what did Harris tell you about them?"

"Hardly anything, he just said that they were Washington werewolves and that I clearly did wrong to them or else they wouldn't be after me with a bounty on my head."

Daniel nods, "Jackie and I are probably the only ones who know the truth to why the Velknar clan is after you." He pauses before telling me, "The Velknars believe in balance, they have morals. And they believe that if you are dead then it will restore balance to the world of vampires and werewolves."

I frown, confused to why I would need to be dead to restore balance to the supernatural, "But why?"

"Because you're the descendant of the most powerful werewolf in the world, and the one who passed that gene on to you, is in command of the biggest pack in the world, the Fenris pack. When you put two and two together, the odds don't sound good for the vampire community since the Fenris pack is planning on killing all vampires. Some vampires know about you and that's why they're after you. For the ones that don't know about you potentially being capable of destroying my kind, they want you for the money the Velknar pack is offering for your capture." Daniel informs me so smoothly and matter-of-fact like, he must have done his research.

I was so confused with all these questions in my mind. If I was the most powerful werewolf in the world, why was I a human? And why wasn't I with the Fenris clan right now if I was in danger? If I was capable of destroying all vampires, wouldn't they want to keep me safe and as far away from the vampire world as possible? "How come the vampires and werewolves hate each other?" I decide to ask the easiest question.

"When vampires first came to be, we were scarce but powerful. The werewolves knew that and decided to end us before we became more in numbers, because if there were more of us we would be able to obliterate the werewolves from existence. Vampires almost became instinct so we decided to go into hiding and create more vampires in secret. Eventually, vampires became worldwide and now the werewolves are in danger of becoming instinct. With you on their side, they are capable of winning especially with two of the most powerful werewolves fighting side by side with the largest pack in the world. Tensions are high."

I nod in acknowledgement; now that question was answered, I could ask the questions bothering me the most, "Who passed the gene onto me? Why aren't I a werewolf now? Who's in command of the wolves now?"

"In order for you to become a werewolf, you need to kill a vampire. But I don't think we need to worry about that." He glances over at me for a minute but doesn't say anything until he looks ahead, "As for who passed the gene unto you, your father did and he's the one commanding the pack." Daniel looks at me again to see my shocked face for I have a feeling I know who he's talking about, my father. As if he read my mind, he nods and confirms, "Your father is alive."

My heart sinks when tells me my father is alive, I feel overwhelmed and my eyes are starting to burn with the tears wanting to come out. He has to be lying, there is no way he is alive, and I saw his body at the wake in the open casket. I saw the casket being lowered into the freshly dug out grave. There was no way. "It can't be."

"It is, Lauren. Adam Jones is the one leading the Fenris pack; there is no doubt about that. He's the only one able to lead it properly… or you." Daniel reaches a hand out to me for some comfort and places it lightly on my hand, "I know this is too shocking to take in all at once but I thought you should at least know after your whole kidnapping incident."

I look down at his hand before warmly smiling up at him, "Thank you for telling me at least that answers pretty much all of my questions. But, how was my father able to fake his death? And why hasn't he come to see my mother and me after all these years of mourning?"

"I don't know about that part, maybe he's trying to not attract attention to you and your mother. My guess is that he only faked his death to keep you and your mother safe from any vampires that wanted to hurt you. It's the same thing I would do for you." When I look into his eyes, I see compassion, kindness, and adoration. It takes everything in me not to lean over and kiss him.

I pretend to clear my throat as I break away our intense gaze, "So, how long did you know about my father? And this plan for my death?"

He sighs as he looks away from me, "For awhile."

I frown, confused to why he sounded ashamed of it "How long is 'awhile?'"

Daniel hesitates before answering, "Well, I knew pretty much all of it when I first met you even before that…" he lingers.

My face becomes red from anger, so many things I wanted to tell him right now but I couldn't bring myself to say them; most of them being a little graphic. How could he keep a secret like that away from me for so long? After everything we've been through, all those months together, did they really mean nothing to him? Well, they meant something to me and that's what hurts the most; the fact that you've loved someone for so long and then finding out they didn't feel the same way. The least he could have done before he left me was tell me about my father and my death sentence. "Wow, Daniel. Just wow, I can't believe you did that to me. You played me… fuck you." With that finally out of my system, I turn away from him and gaze towards the trees, glaring at them.

"I'm sorry, Lauren, please let me finish explaining, please." I hear Daniel plead to me. He was going to have to do a lot better than that to have the slightest chance to get on my good side. "You didn't hear the rest of the story."

"I don't need to either. Even if you explain it to me, at the end of the day, you still _lied _to me about it. So don't even bother talking to me anymore," I say to him with clenched teeth.

To my surprise he actually shuts up, that's a first. I feel so hurt and betrayed by him, how dare he keep that secret from me. Especially when he knew before he even met me and when we went into a relationship. Shouldn't he have at least brought it up when I had that conversation about my father? That would have made a lot more sense. All of these years of mourning, they were for nothing. I didn't care about why he didn't tell me, he still kept it away from me and for that, he deserves the way he's getting treated by me right now.

The past hour consisted of nothing but the music playing on the radio and Daniel driving down the highway. I didn't steal a glance at him the whole time even though it took a lot in me not to. I thought if I even looked at his flawless face I would have gotten upset again but thankfully I didn't. Regardless, I was still angry with him and didn't plan on talking to him ever again after tonight.

Finally, Daniel pulls into my driveway. Before Daniel can even put the car to a complete stop, I immediately open the door and jump out without saying a word to him. I take elongated strides to my front door, opening it within seconds. I knew that Daniel wouldn't follow me since my mom was home, he wouldn't dare cause a scene in front of her. "Mom, I'm home from the surprise party!" I call out to her; obviously I wasn't going to tell her about my experience tonight and especially where I was before that happened.

But I don't hear my mother reply back like she always does, "Mom?"

I walk into the kitchen to see a not on the counter. I lift the note up to get a closer look at what was written:

Lauren, I went off to the office; there was an emergency meeting. I'm sorry I won't be home by the time you come back tonight. I promise we'll do something special for your birthday tomorrow if I can. I'll be back in a couple of hours or so.

Love, Mom

As I put the note back on the counter, I feel something on my shoulder. When I look over to the spot on my shoulder that was touched, I see Daniel's hand. I quickly brush it off, "Did I say you can come in?" I roughly ask him as I walk over to the fridge.

"No," Daniel admits, "But, I figured I would check the house out before anything; regardless if you like me to or not." Before I can protest, he strides out of the kitchen and towards the living room.

I roll my eyes and sigh when I open the fridge door and reach in for a bottle of water. Right away, I get the cap off and chug down the cold water as if it was my last drink. I didn't know how thirsty I was until now, I don't know if it was from the alcohol or what. Although, I didn't drink that much, maybe I was a little buzzed but the alcohol has left my system.

I decide it's time for me to get ready for bed while Daniel scopes through my house; at least it'll be an excuse for him to leave. I run upstairs and head straight to the bathroom, trying to avoid Daniel. I lock the door and do my nightly ritual before I go to bed, which basically consists of me washing my face, brushing my teeth, and changing into pajamas. I grab a pair of my pink plaid pajama shorts, and a plain white tank top.

When I have my pajama's on, I throw my dress in the hamper, tie my hair back into a ponytail and walk out into the hall. I didn't even bother removing my makeup; I just wanted to go to bed so that Daniel would leave.

I look both ways, seeing if Daniel was right there but he wasn't; so I took that as my cue to head immediately to my bedroom. I gently shut the door behind me, at the same time, I turn on the lights. Something suddenly draws me over to my full length mirror as I walk over to it. As I'm looking at my reflection, I notice the necklace that Shawn gave me is a different color, instead of it being the lilac color it normally was; it was a deep shade of blue. I frown; Shawn never told me it was able to do that. I quickly brush it off, thinking that it was probably a mood rock necklace like those cheap mood rings.

With my hands reached behind my neck, I unclasp the necklace from around me. I then reach over to the dresser nearby and place the necklace down. But when I look back into the mirror, I notice that I wasn't alone like I was only a second ago. Seeing this causes me to jump.

Daniel lightly laughs, "I'm sorry that I scared you, that wasn't my intention. I liked that dress you were in before, very sexy."

I ignore his comment and glare at his reflection, "Then what is your intention? Oh wait, you probably can't answer that truthfully so don't waste your time trying to explain to me a lie." I brush past him to go over to my other dresser across the room, pretending to get something out of one of the drawers.

"Oh c'mon Lauren," I hear him say at the time of his boots hitting my wooden floor, walking over to the dresser it sounded like. "I said I was sorry, plus, you never let me finished ex-" He stops in midsentence to howl in pain.

My head whips around to see Daniel dropping Shawn's necklace like it was on fire. "Damn it!" He shouts.

I walk over to him, frowning, "What did you do?"

"What did I do? I didn't do anything, I picked up this necklace and it burned me like holy water would but this time it feels different. Where did you get this from?" He tries to lift the necklace by the chain but he winces when he still gets burned.

I hesitate before answering, "Shawn." My frown deepens, he doesn't know about vampires and werewolves, so why would he give me a necklace that hurts vampires? It was probably nothing, "Maybe the necklace was laced with holy water a long time ago? He doesn't know about the supernatural so he wouldn't have a reason to lace it."

He shakes his head, "Holy water has an expiration date, it doesn't last forever, and the effects of it wear off." He looks over at my confused expression, "Maybe you're right." Daniel clearly wanted to change the subject and that was fine with me.

"So," I start off as I walk over to the closed door, "Now that you checked out the place, isn't it time for you to go?"

"That depends, are you going to let me talk?" Daniel says with a smirk on his face and a gleam in his eyes as he slowly walks over to me.

"No." I open the door for him, "Get out."

"Not until you actually let me tell you the rest of the reason why I didn't tell you about any of this, about your father or your death being planned." He grabs the door and despite my pulling, he closes it shut. "Please."

I cross my arms across my chest as I walk over to the blanket chest against the end of my bed, "You lied to me, and you don't deserve to explain because whatever reasons you have are irrelevant to the fact that you still lied and that means you don't care about me, you never have." I turn to face him but when I do; his face is so close to mine that I can smell his sweet mint-breath.

"True," Daniel quietly replies when he walks across the room and turns to face me, "The reason I did it was to protect you, for one; knowing this would have put you in a lot more danger. Knowing you, you would probably try to be a little Nancy Drew and try to solve the case yourself. Well, you doing that isn't exactly going to get you anywhere, if anything, it's just going to get you killed." I open my mouth to speak but Daniel raises his voice and interrupts me from talking, "No, you know what? It's _my_ turn to talk; I don't want to hear the accusations because you have no idea how much I care about you. If I didn't I wouldn't have bothered saving you from Harris and his men earlier tonight."

Daniel strides over to me with our faces so close to touching, "If it's the truth you want, here it is, I came in this town to kill you. I had every intension of drinking your blood until your veins ran dry but that's when I talked to you that day in school. Something changed in me; you made me laugh something that I hadn't done in awhile. I was supposed to kill you that night after school but I couldn't bring myself to do it, I could tell you were hurting and in pain for some reason, I felt your pain. I wanted to know you, to actually know you. That's when I fell in love with you. I lied before when I said I never loved you, I thought that if you thought that then all of this would go away but it's not. If anything, it's only becoming stronger. I was in love with you and I still am; I can't deny it anymore. It was never over for me, and it still isn't." Before I could react or say anything, our lips collide.

I place my hand on his, which was gently placed on my cheek. My body felt like it had been waiting for this moment for a long time. But my mind was screaming at me to pull away from him, this wasn't right, I was dating Shawn I shouldn't be kissing Daniel when I had him. My heart on the other hand, was telling me to be happy and that this moment felt like it was right.

My face was still blushing at what he told just confessed to me. I didn't know what to feel about the fact that his original intentions with me were to kill me. Now, I'm in awe at the fact that he confessed his love for me but if I set myself for hope, I'm afraid that it was going to be taken away from me again. I didn't want to set myself up for disappointment. The only way to protect myself was to push Daniel away, but something inside prevented me to.

It was just then that our kiss became more intense. The kiss became more heavy and passionate, I was so used to Shawn's kisses that this kind surprised me, but I liked it. Each time I kissed Daniel now, I felt even guiltier.

Suddenly, Daniel lifts me up without pulling away and places me on the bed. He was now on top of me, one of his hands on my face and the other on my waist. This was going too far for my liking. It takes everything in me to pull away, and when I do Daniel looks at me in confusion. "What's wrong?"

"Daniel," I start when I try to get up, Daniel knows right away to let me up. He sits up on the bed as I stand to my feet, looking at him with sadness for what I was about to do to him, "I can't do this."

"Do what? Be with me, I don't see why not?"

I sigh, "I have Shawn now, and I just cheated on him, you have no idea how guilty I feel right now. He did nothing wrong to deserve this."

"Lauren, if you even liked him as much as you say you do, you wouldn't have made out with me just now." He gets up off the bed and stands in front of me, "Why does it even matter with Shawn anyway? It's just some high school relationship; you'll get sick of each other in a couple months."

"Kind of like with what happened to us? Or better yet, you got sick of me? I never got sick of you, I loved you and that meant nothing to you." I start sobbing with tears streaming down my face. "If you never left me, none of this would have happened."

Daniel has sympathy and guilt in his eyes as his arms wrap around me to try to soothe me, "We can make it right again Lauren, just please be with me."

My face is snuggled into his chest, "I want to just drop Shawn right now to be with you, but I can't. I'm with him now, and something is holding me back from you. It's like something inside my mind is stopping me from being with you."

I hear Daniel sigh before he says, "It's because I made you forget about me and to move on with your life, I used my mind control on you. And I regret doing that to you."

I stiffen, "What?" I'm still sobbing and crying when I continually punch him square in the chest, "Why would you do that? Why?"

Daniel pins my arms down to my sides easily, "I thought that's what would have been best for you, and I wanted you to have a human experience. Let's face it; I was holding you back from living your life. I thought that if I left all this chaos would too but I was wrong, I see that now." I try to get out of Daniel's grasp, but he has me pinned down to this spot, "How about if I make you remember the morning and night I compelled you? Would that make you stop fighting me?"

"Maybe," I grumble, I just wanted him to leave me alone right now. I was so conflicted with my feelings that I didn't know if I hated him or loved him. "But clearly your compulsion didn't work fully since I'm still feeling something for you."

Daniel smiles for a second but then his expression goes back to being serious. He looks so deep into my eyes that I think he can see my soul, "Remember that night, when I saved you from the car accident and the following morning."

It comes over me all at once; my mind races back to the moment of me in the car trying to get myself out. That was when Daniel arrived to help me out of the car with me blacking out in the process. My mind jumps to me waking up in Daniel's silk sheets. I let the memories take over my mind as it fast forwards through to the moment I was eavesdropping on Daniel's conversation on the phone with him catching me. We were bickering back and forth until I kissed Daniel. That's when we started getting frisky with each other and took it to the bedroom. We kept going until Daniel stopped us from doing the act and runs off for the rest of the night. Out of anger I search for alcohol but instead find a note from a father to his daughter.

Morning came, I run into Daniel with breakfast. We start arguing about last night until I was confronted him about the letter I found, thinking it was for me from my dad. Daniel still insists that I get out but I stay strong and confess my feelings for him, but I regret it for some reason. That's when Daniel has me in a trance and confesses his love for me:

* * *

><p>He looks deeply into my eyes, "Lauren, listen to me carefully and don't talk just hear me out."<p>

I can't help but listen to him and I wanted to ask him what he was about to tell me but I couldn't find myself to talk.

"I love you and it's because I love, that I have to let you go. It's dangerous for you to be with me especially since it will draw attention from all of the unwanted visitors that maybe coming into town soon. I have to protect you and the only way for me to do that is to go away. It kills me inside that I have to leave my only reason for living, the love of my life. I'm so selfish for loving you so much that it hurts more than you will ever know."

I wanted to ask who was coming to town and what they want with me, but something stops me from speaking. I wanted to tell Daniel that I loved him too and that I always will no matter what has or will happen between us but yet again, I can't.

Daniel smirks as he tells me, "Just kiss me."

At the moment when Daniel tells me to kiss him, I crush my lips to his so forcefully that I thought I hurt him. Daniel reluctantly kisses me back just as forcefully yet it was so gentle.

We must have been kissing for minutes because I have to pull away for air. Daniel doesn't start kissing my neck or anything like he normally did when I pulled away. I frown, wondering what we was about to do next.

"I wish that I didn't have to do this, but I need to. Just know before I do this that I love you and I won't stop loving you no matter what happens," he says grimly as he brushes the back of his hand on my cheek, sweeping a strand of hair back. My frown deepens as I try to think of what he was going to that he was going to regret so much.

He sighs before he looks into my eyes deeply and says, "You're going forget everything that I just told you and you'll forget about the other night; the car accident, what happened between us and what happened this morning. You only came here to check up on me but you found out that I left town for good. You were sad but you knew it was for the best," I notice one single tear streaming down his left cheek, "Once you get in your car to leave this place and never come back, you realize that you're over me and are able to move on from the past. The last time you remember seeing me or speaking to me was the night over at your house. Think that the reason why I broke up with you was because I never loved you."

"Forget about your father and the letter that you found, you still think that he died in that car accident years ago." Daniel strokes my face one last time before he vanishes in front of my eyes.

* * *

><p>The memory makes tears stream down my face even more. I love him more than I ever had before but I can't, he was right, I couldn't be with him. Not just because of Shawn, but because if he was trying to protect me with all these vampires and werewolves trying to kill me, they'll kill him too if he gets in the way. I loved him too much to let him die because of me, and that's why I have to hurt him for his safety. It's going to kill me by hurting him. I glare at him, "Why? You could have still had me Daniel! But now, you can't be with me."<p>

He frowns, "Why not, because of Shawn?"

I nod, "Yes, because of Shawn. I love him Daniel, and you can't even change that." I lie, I wasn't in love with Shawn, and I only liked him. It was nothing compared to what I felt for Daniel.

I see hurt in his expression and it takes everything in me not start crying again. "Please Lauren, just give me a chance. I can show you that I'm still me, everything can be like it's never changed." He pauses, "I don't even know what you see in him anyway Lauren, I don't see him calling you right now asking if you're okay. He clearly doesn't care."

"He cares about me more than you ever had. If you really cared about me, you wouldn't have mind controlled me." I pause before going on, trying to not cry at what I was about to say to him. "Plus, Shawn's human, it's something that you can never be." I felt absolutely terrible for bringing that up but I had to hurt him as much as possible to push him away from me.

Daniel stiffens, not believing that I just said that. "True," is all he says at first, "He can't protect you the way I can, just think about this? I love you and I don't want to lose you again."

"I have Daniel," I say walking away from him, "And I've decided I don't want you in my life, you've lost me forever so don't come back… _ever_." He's in pain now but I had to say something to top it off, "You can go be with Jackie, the one that you loved first and hopefully for you she'll be your last. Goodbye Daniel." I say as I hold the door open for him.

"If that's what you really want." Daniel sulks over and exits my room without a word.

When I hear the front door open and close, I lean against the door as I start to break down. I didn't want to let him leave but I had to. I cry loudly when I think about his hurt expression over and over again in my mind. I couldn't get that image out of my head. I guess if you really love someone, you have to let them go. And if hurting Daniel was the only way to let him go, that's what I was going to do. Despite how much it killed me inside to do it.


	16. Chapter 16

_Chapter 16_

I couldn't sleep at all last night; my night consisted of crying nonstop. And when tears couldn't be produced anymore, I was sobbing the rest of the night. There was so much conflict and frustration in me, there still is.

I reach over to my bedside table and lift my phone to look at my missed calls and never replied to text messages, all from Shawn. I read the text messages from Shawn, all saying the same thing, 'Where are you? Are you okay?' It looked like Daniel was partially right, if Shawn really cared about me, he would have come over last night to check up on me but he didn't. But at the same time, I should cut him some slack; it hasn't been that long since we started dating. Maybe he will change and be more comfortable with me later on in the relationship.

I lie back on the bed and think about last night's events; the club, when I was captured, Daniel saving me, and what Daniel told me about why the whole supernatural community wanted me dead. But then, I'm interrupted by the sound of someone knocking on my door, "Who is it?" I question

"Who do you think?" I hear my mom say, I can hear the smile in her voice. She opens the door with a plate with stacked blueberry pancakes drenched with maple syrup and topped with fresh strawberries, it was my favorite. "Happy late birthday baby," She hands me the plate while giving me a peck on my forehead. "Sorry but I haven't had a chance to go shopping for your birthday. I promise I'll get shopping done by this week."

"Oh mom, you don't have to get me anything." I say as I place my plate on the bedside table.

"I do though, you deserve something." She smiles down at me when she sits on the edge of the bed beside me. That smile then goes to worry, "It looks like you've been crying all night, what's wrong? Is it Shawn?"

When she brings up Shawn, my mind immediately goes to Daniel and it brings tears to my eyes. My mom wraps her arms around me and brings me to her. She slightly rocks back and forth while shushing me, trying to soothe me. After what must have been 10 minutes of crying, my mom asks, "Do you want to talk about it?"

I nod into my mom's shoulder before I pull myself out of her arms to look in the eyes. I was going to tell her everything, well, minus the supernatural part of course. "I want to be with Shawn but I don't know if it's the best thing for me because I'm still in love with Daniel and I just don't know what to do anymore. I feel like I cheated." Well, I technically did cheat on him but I felt like I cheated Daniel, I played him I kissed him back and gave him hope that we would be together but no, I had to break his heart. I felt like I cheated on Shawn before that special kiss between Daniel and I, just the amount of feelings I had when I realized he didn't leave down. My heart really didn't belong with Shawn, it belonged with Daniel. And now, I can't have either of them.

She strokes my hand, "Love is very complicated. It haunts us no matter what. Honestly, I was hoping that this thing with Shawn didn't last." I frown up at her but before I could ask why, she answers the question. "You seem happy with him but I saw that you weren't complete." She sighs, "Daniel on the other hand, I don't necessarily approve of him but I can tell her really truly makes you happy. Before you go off dating him again, well if you choose to, know that you're not going over there when I'm gone at work at night."

I frown again, "How did you-" Before I could finish my question, my mom responds with a knowing look, "I may be your mother but that doesn't make me stupid. That means, if you get pregnant, I will not hesitate to cut off his penis."

I couldn't help but laugh at that, I loved how my mom was so carefree and she sometimes doesn't care about what anyone thinks. It's something I wish that had been passed down to me. I wipe away my tears and smiles to my mom, "I'll pass the message. But, I don't know if I should start dating Daniel or just forget him."

My mother's face turns into seriousness, "You want to know what I think? I think that you should stop listening to your head and finally listen to your heart. I think that you should have some time to yourself and have a breather to think about what you really want then listen to your heart. That's what I would do in your situation." She gets up from the bed, "Besides, you're too young to settle down for someone so easily, live a little before you do that. I did and it was great while it lasted" Ever so slightly, her face fell as memories of dad came back to her.

Seeing my mom sad made me sad, she shouldn't live like this. As much as I love my dad, she needs to find someone else to make her happy. "Thank you mom." I wrap my arms around her, putting her in a tight embrace. She hugs back just as tightly.

"You're welcome sweetie," she pulls back and kisses my cheek, "Eat your pancakes then come down stairs, we're actually going shopping."

My face turns to false shock, "You're not going to work for one day? How will you manage that?"

My mom playfully smacks my arm, "Shut up, I asked off and they actually let me. I swear they locked me up in that office as if it was quarantine." I giggle as she walks across the room to the door but before she leaves the room, I call out her name. "Yes?"

I was going to tell her about how Dad was alive, so that she would beat herself up for any of it. For some odd reason, she always thought it was because of her he died, but that's not even true. I wanted to give her the relief and sense of closure see wants. "Thanks for the pancakes." I say instead.

She smiles, "You're welcome." When she walks out of the room and I hear her go down the stairs, I lay back down on my bed. She wouldn't have believed me anyway, if I had told her; my mom would have called me crazy and delusional. But if she had believed me, it would raise a lot of questions that I wouldn't want to answer or wouldn't know the answers to. I needed to keep her out of this supernatural business; it would be safer for her. If I wasn't supernatural, we wouldn't be in this mess, Daniel didn't cause it, it was all me.

In fact, everyone would be safer if I didn't exist. Daniel wouldn't be fighting with his life everyday by protecting me from the werewolves and vampires that want to kill me; Shawn's perfectly human life wouldn't be affected. Especially Rachel, her life hasn't been the same exactly, especially since of Henry; but if it wasn't for me, Henry would never have come to town in the first place.

That's when I come up with a very rash decision that may save everyone I love. But first, I had to officially break up with Shawn. I didn't have the audacity to break up via text or phone call, so I texted him to meet me at the park to talk and go for a little walk.

I push the covers off of my body to get ready. And once I am, I tell my mom I needed to take care of things with Shawn then I needed to make a stop at Rachel's to help me out with my last of school outfit. Which was a complete lie but it was the best thing I could come up with. I tell her I'll be back as soon as I can. But in reality, I don't think I'll be coming back.

I pull on a pair of boots, grab the keys, and rush out to the car. But before I start the car, I scroll through my contacts and when I finally find the person I wanted, I press the talk button. It rings; it wasn't until the 4th ring that I finally hear the voice, "Who is this?" I hear them question.

"It's Lauren, before you hang up, I think I have a plan that you may find interesting and very hard to resist."


	17. Chapter 17

_Chapter 17_

On the street of the park, I decide to call Daniel to tell him one last thing before I was gone for good. I hear the ringing of the phone go on and on but then it clicks and I'm left with the voicemail. When I hear the beep to leave the message all I can manage to say was, "Daniel, I hope that you can forgive me for everything I put you through. And I just wanted to let you know that I never stopped loving you and I always will love you." With that being said, I end the phone call.

In a way, I was glad that Daniel didn't pick up; it meant that I wouldn't be able to hear his voice asking me what I was doing. I couldn't answer that question because I don't even know what I'm doing. Daniel will be furious with me when he finds out what I'm planning.

The time I pull up to the park, I see Shawn leaning against his truck waiting for me. When he recognizes my car and the driver, he straightens up. He doesn't wait to till I fully park the car in the parking spot; he's immediately on the driver's side. Once I turn off the engine, he opens the door for me and offers a hand; I accept it willingly but warily, I was going to break his heart and he doesn't even know it yet.

"I'm so glad that you're alright," He wraps his strong arms around me into a tight embrace, "Where did you go last night?"

I wait a little bit before answering, "I was starting to get claustrophobic in the club so I just went out for some fresh air." I pull away, feeling the effects of our embrace, "Sorry I never responded to your phone call or texts, I was in an 'out of service' area."

He slightly nods, "Oh, that's fine at least now I know what happened. It's a relief to see that you're alright but I can't but feel you didn't want to come here to talk about last night…" He drifts off.

I sigh in frustration, "Yeah," I walk ahead of him towards the trail through the woods. I turn back to see that he wasn't following, "Come on, let's go take a walk."

He nods walks up to the right side of me, and we walk side by side. Shawn tries to take hold of my hand but I pull my hand away so that he gets the hint that I didn't want to touch him right now. "So, why did you want to meet here?" He asks, immediately wanting to get to the point.

"A private place to talk I guess. About us," I say cautiously.

"What about us?" Shawn frowns in confusion.

I hesitate before answering; I avoid his eyes as I say, "About our relationship." I pause and look back at him; he was just staring at me waiting for an elaboration. "I don't think this is working out, I feel terrible for ending it like this before giving you a chance but I have sort out my feelings right now. I'm so sorry Shawn. Maybe we can try again later on."

Shawn's face fell, "And I thought that everything was going fine between us. It's because of Daniel isn't it?" Shawn right now sounds so hurt and sad that I can't help but wrap my arm around him.

"No," I partially lie, well he was a big part of it but he wasn't all of it. I wasn't going to break up with Shawn to go right back to Daniel, I wasn't like that at all. I did it so when I left town for good, he wouldn't worry anymore about me. "I'm not going to date him again. This is just for me; I need some time to myself to straighten things out."

"If he told you something about me yesterday night, you can tell me. He probably lied about it anyway. I can see the way he looks at you Lauren; he looks at you like you're a piece of meat to be eaten. It's disgusting."

I'm taken aback at this side of Shawn; he was trying to hurt my feelings for breaking up with him. He was trying to make me pull away from Daniel back to him, I wasn't sure if that's exactly what he was doing but it sounds like it to me. "Daniel didn't tell me anything about you… Why is there something more that I need to know about you?"

"Yes, but I'm afraid to tell you. It's something that you wouldn't exactly approve of." Shawn sighs, "Lauren, there is so much of me that I want to tell you but I can't. I know how you feel about secrets but there are some things better off left unsaid, I'm sorry."

"You telling me this isn't going to make me change my decision, so goodbye." I turn to leave but I feel his hand held onto my forearm, holding me back.

"Wait," Shawn pleads, "We can make this work."

I look over to him and whisper, "I don't think it will ever work Shawn; I used to think that it would but I now see it can't. I'm sorry but I have to go." I run down the hill and follow the trail back to the parking lot, trying not to cry for hurting his feelings. I look back to see if he was following, but I didn't see him. At least he wasn't going to make this worse by coming after me to talk some more.

I finally reach my car and search my pocket for the keys but before I can fish them out, I feel a hand grab onto my head. The next thing I know my head is being smashed onto my driver's window, and the last thing I hear is the glass of the window cracking.


	18. Chapter 18

_Chapter 18 _

The first thing I feel when I wake is the throbbing of my head; it feels like a killer migraine. I feel my face pressed up against something cold and hard. When I become more aware, I open my eyes but everything is dark. I can't see anything. I rub the back of my head as I sit up straight and call out, "Is anyone there? Hello?"

Just as I said that, I hear the sound of a match lighting. I can slightly see the flame from a distance and the small radiance of light, but I can't see who lit the match. Suddenly, there is a fire moving towards me in a strange movement. The flames inch closer and closer in a straight line as if there was a path made already for it, I start to shake. This was the end for me, and I didn't even know who will be ending my life. I close my eyes as I feel the heat get closer to me but then the heat slightly fades away.

I frown as I open my eyes and take in my surroundings. First, I stare into the flames of the fire right next to me; it was a trail of some sort of herb that was being burned. I'm surrounded by it so I couldn't escape; I was practically engulfed in flames. I was in a huge circle so I had enough room to move. I was in what looked like a cave, "Who's there?" I shout

"Who do you think?" I hear a female voice shout back. I recognized that voice, it wasn't until she came close to the circle that I truly knew who it was. Jackie. "Remember our agreement?"

I glare at her, "This wasn't part of it. We had a deal that you would take me to the Velknar pack peacefully. And that in exchange you would have Daniel all to yourself."

"I know, and that is what I'm doing. The fire was just in case you tried to escape. I told them to meet me here so that we could exchange you for my payment." She smirks, probably because of the satisfaction that she won't have to compete for Daniel's love anymore. I'll be out of the picture completely.

"What would be the point of forming this plan if I was going to back out? Plus, you're a vampire, how can I get away from you?"

"You found ways before, this is just reassured." She pauses with a gleam in her eye, "So is this." She snaps her fingers and I see on the right of her, Shawn appears with Rachel in his arms.

My jaw drops, "Rachel! Are you okay? Please say something!"

"She's unconscious, she can't hear you." She looks over to me with a smile across her face, "Shawn must have hit her head pretty hard for her to still be knocked out." I look over to Shawn to see if he really did do this and when he looks away from me, I know that he did. "Why Shawn?"

"I'm sorry Lauren; I have to make sure that the Velknar clan takes care of you for good."

I frown in confusion and surprise, "How do you know about the Velknar clan? Did Jackie bring you up to this? What do you mean? You know that they'll kill me. Did you really have to bring Rachel into this?"

"Whatever it takes, I'm working for the Velknar's and bringing you home would be the ultimate prize for my people. They prefer to keep you alive and I just couldn't kill you like I planned." He says in a monotone voice. "I'm sorry."

I'm shocked, he's a werewolf and he's working for the Velknar's. It hurts to know that our whole relationship was a lie to get me to become close to him so he could just kidnap me. Honestly, right now I'd rather have Jackie take me to Washington than Shawn. "I hope you're happy now," I say to Shawn with anger, "You gained my trust and used it to your advantage, I hate you."

"Be nice, Lauren," Jackie says in a teasing tone. "He helped me a lot, updated me on you and your movements. See, I was just going to kill at first but then Daniel came to me for help. He needed to find out more about the werewolves and knowing me, I'm a great investigator. So I decided to help and then I met Shawn here. I was about to kill him when he discovered me on Velknar property but he pleaded for his life. That's when I had a plan to use Shawn to get close to you and knowing you, you would get attached to anyone. What made it even better was that Daniel and you broke up."

I had to admit, it was a good plan and I never suspected a thing. That was why Shawn was so persistent with me, he needed to get close to me or else he would have been killed by Jackie. Now, she has Rachel because of me, I was afraid that she'll kill her, "Please, just let her go and you have my word that I won't fight you or try to get away."

Just then, there is a noise coming from the entrance of the cave. "Too late," Jackie warns with a smile, "They're here for you." Shawn puts Rachel down onto the cave floor.

I stiffen, not prepared for what was about to happen. Just then, two figures enter the light a man and a woman. The man was old and looked weak; the woman on the other was relatively young around her late 20's with her red hair. Jackie and Shawn turn to face the strangers. "That's all the pack brought? An old man and a girl?" Jackie thinks out loud.

"Don't underestimate our power, Jackie," The woman warns. They walk past Jackie and Shawn to the fire circle and stare down upon me. The next thing I know, the flames die down to the point of them dying out. The cave almost becomes dark again. "Come." The woman says to me, beckoning me over to her.

I do as she says and step out of the circle in front of her and the old man. The old man grabs my elbow as the woman asks Jackie, "Did you bring the necklace?" I look over at Shawn who walks up to us and pulls out my bloodstone necklace out of his pocket.

"You stole that?" I ask Shawn, "What for?"

Instead of Shawn answering me the old man answers, "It's important for us. So just put the necklace on." He takes the necklace from Shawn's hand and reaches to me, wanting me to take it.

I look at my necklace dangling from his hand, frown and shake my head, "Not until you tell me why."

"Stubborn girl aren't you? Very well," the old man clears his throat preparing to tell me why I needed to wear the necklace, "If you die wearing this necklace, the power you possess will absorb into it. Your ancestors over many years have died wearing the bloodstone necklace so with their power combined with yours, will be enough for us to defeat Adam."

I glare at him; there was no way I was going to do that to my father. I wasn't going to die so that he could die too. After all, the whole reason for me dying was to protect everyone I loved. "I'm not going to wear that necklace, you can't make me!"

"Yes you will if you know what's best for your friend," Jackie growls.

I sigh in defeat and look over to Rachel who I can see was starting to wake. I immediately run over to her, and I'm surprised when no one stops me, "Are you okay?" I ask as I kneel down beside her, propping her up right.

She rubs the back of her head, disoriented, "Yeah, what happened? I'm at my house and next thing I know, I black out feeling pain on the back of my head. Now, I'm here." She takes a look around and notices Jackie, Shawn, and the two members of the Velknar pack with us. "Where is here exactly and who are these people with Shawn?"

"Listen to me Rachel; you are going to be alright. I have to listen to what they say or else you'll be in danger." Jackie is behind me pulling me away from her, "There's no time to explain everything but just know that I love you and you'll always be my best friend."

Jackie pushes me over to the man and woman, "Let's get this over with so I can get paid and have the satisfaction of seeing her dead."

"This is the last time we're telling you, put on the necklace." The woman says through gritted teeth; she clearly was getting aggravated.

I look between Rachel looking at me with such confusion and worry in her eyes to the necklace in the man's hand. Before I could have a chance to agree, I see Jackie flash over to Rachel and having her in a lock hold, "Don't!" I shout, "Don't hurt her!"

"Maybe turning her into a vampire will change your mind." Without hesitation, she bites into her wrist and feeds Rachel her blood. I can see Rachel swallowing it, having no other choice but then Jackie snaps her neck as easily as a twig.

"No!" I scream, as I try to run over to her but the woman is holding me by my neck. I feel the chain of the necklace scraping against my skin. When the chain falls and the necklace stays in place, I knew that it was clasped and it signaled my death. But I hear something I didn't expect, the woman beside me gasping and staring on the left of me. Before I could look, I hear the thudding of something falling to the cave floor.

I whip my head around to see the man's body on the floor with what looked like a sharp wooden stick or stake through his heart. Standing over his body was Daniel; I was so relieved to see him but angered. He was going to get himself killed trying to save me. "Thanks for the tip wolf boy." He doesn't even look to Shawn's direction when he says this. Shawn nods his head as if to say you're welcome. He takes a step towards the woman who was still surprised. "I suggest you let her go or things will end badly for you."

"I don't think so," she says smugly right before I feel a sharp, ripping in my back to through me. I look down to see some type of blade coming out of my midsection covered with my blood. Just as quickly as it entered me, it was out of my body. I instantly fall backwards and topple to the floor. Daniel's growl scares me as I see him lunge for the woman. But when I look over to the woman, she wasn't a woman anymore; in her place was a red colored wolf snarling at Daniel. Daniel tries to grab a hold of the wolf's throat but instead gets his arm bitten.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Jackie darting towards me but she quickly is intercepted, she's on the floor fighting with another wolf with blond fur, Shawn. As I look into his eyes, I'm immediately taken back to the car accident. Thanks to Daniel, I can remember it clearly once more. The way the wolf stared at me was exactly how Shawn was staring at me now.

Unlike Daniel, Shawn looked like he was winning the fight with Jackie. I try to rip my eyes away as Jackie finally has him in a lock hold but I couldn't. It was the only thing I could focus on at the moment to distract myself from the pain. I gently place my hand on the wound to see how much it was bleeding; I wasn't surprised to see when I pull my hand up to my face that it was covered with blood. I let myself lie there and wait for me to die.

There was no way I was going to survive this time; I was lucky the first time when Jackie almost killed me for good. I try to look on the positive side and think of the good times before any of this. I had to admit, I had some great times with Shawn, we were cute together but that was temporary. There were more memorable moments; like the first time I met Daniel, our first kiss, when we finally started dating, and our first time. Those moments meant so much to me and were the best in my life. They weren't something I was going to easily forget.

I didn't realize I was drifting off until there was a huge crash at the far end of the cave. I look over to see Shawn being slammed on the cave wall by Jackie. And that's when I see Jackie running towards me; naturally I wanted to defend myself. So, I pull the stake out of the old man near me and point the sharp end out towards Jackie. I cringe as I prepare having my life end by Jackie.

I wasn't expecting to feel the pressure of Jackie on the stake, so when I open my eyes and see Jackie's shocked face with the stake I was holding pierced through her heart, I gasp. I look into her eyes and see the life being drained from her; I can't believe I just killed Jackie, a vampire and just me a mere human.

Before I push her corpse off of me, I feel the weight of Jackie begin to fade. Shawn is standing over me with his arms out in front of him, holding Jackie, but he quickly throws her aside with the stake still inside of her. He kneels down beside me and whispers, "It'll be okay, I'll be right back, I'm going to help Daniel take care of that bitch." He runs off before I could thank him.

I cough but when I do, blood comes streaming down my mouth. I can taste the iron from the blood, a sweet metallic-like taste. That's when my vision starts to go, the blackness is starting to make the light from the fire a few feet beside me, fade away.

I can feel the life draining from me, my eyes become heavy it takes everything in me to keep them open. The last thing I hear is Daniel's voice calling out my name, coming closer to me. I'm then easily defeated, I succumb to the darkness once and for all.

* * *

><p><span>Shawn's P.O.V<span>

I change back into my human form after the female finally decides to retreat, the limbs of my body forming back into their original form. The process doesn't hurt for me anymore especially since I've changed so many times that you build up a resistance to that type of pain.

Looking back over to Lauren's limp body on the floor, I think to myself, no one deserves what she's going through right now. Even though she hates me, I will always fight for her. I really liked her, although she probably thinks I used her. Which I did, at first and then I got to know her, she's smart, funny, hot, and a good person. Who wouldn't like that type of person? I had to do what I did so that I wouldn't be tied to the Velknar clan anymore; I didn't owe them anything anymore.

Daniel instantly speeds off to Lauren once the girl flees the scene and I'm not far behind him. I stare at the puddle of blood underneath Lauren, her clothes drenched with the blood. I stand a couple feet behind Daniel when he kneels beside Lauren, to give him his space and to let him save her if he could.

I didn't really have a problem with Daniel, surprisingly. Besides the fact that he was a vampire and the fact that he was in love with the girl I wanted, he was a cool dude from what I've seen of him. I didn't know him that well enough to have or haven't have a problem with him… yet.

Daniel lightly caresses Lauren's flawless face, "Come on Lauren please open your eyes." He pleads slightly to her. He tries shaking her gently but she's unresponsive. He places his index and middle finger on her artery, checking for a pulse I'm assuming. "No," he gravely says, "Lauren, wake up." Daniel then props her up so that she's sitting upright, but her head just dangles lifelessly, her face pointing upwards to the ceiling. "Dammit," I hear Daniel mutter under his breath. I frown as I see him hold his wrist up to his mouth and bites into it. I have to look away as he presses his bleeding wrist onto her mouth. "Drink," I hear him encourage her, "I love you, please drink it." His voice slightly cracks like he was about to cry.

When I look back a moment or two later, blood is dripping off of Lauren's lip but what I don't understand is why he just offered her his blood. "Why did you do that?"

He doesn't bother looking in my direction with a monotone voice, "So she'll come back to life, just not as a human."

I can't help but feel disgusted; he turning her into a vampire was so selfish of him. I would rather see her die than seeing her drink the blood of other innocent humans. It was sick. "Didn't you feel a pulse?" I ask with slight hope in my voice.

"Barely, I must have fed her my blood too late. She's dead." The dude sounds so depressed that I can't help but feel sorry for him. Daniel presses her bloody body to his so gently.

I remember the clan telling me secretly that if the stone has a glow to it that means her power was entering it and the only way her power would enter the stone was if she was dead. That must mean that she wasn't dead! There might be hope after all! "Her necklace didn't glow. The elder said that when she died, the stone would glow and it hasn't glowed yet to that has to mean that she's still alive. Right?"

Simply, Daniel shakes his head no, "There's no way. Even if she was still alive when I fed her my blood, the blood would have killed her almost instantly. It must mean that the necklace is fake."

"Oh," is all I could manage. My face slightly falls; to think that I couldn't apologize to Lauren and tell her how truly sorry I was. That thought made me depressed, but not as depressed as Daniel for sure. He must be at the brink of tears right now. "How long will it take for us to know if your blood worked?"

It takes him a minute to respond, "It depends, an hour, a day, a week. It's different for most vampires; there isn't a definite way to know." He sighs, "It doesn't matter anymore anyway, I was too late she's gone for good." Wow, this dude was so distraught over Lauren. It was awkward; I didn't know what to say to him or anything. So I just shut my mouth and watched Daniel cradling Lauren in his arms with his face in her hair.

Just then, I hear movement just across from us. Daniel doesn't even bother looking when I scan the place only to have my eyes draw to Rachel who was now awake and clearly regained consciousness. So, that meant she was now a vampire but before I have a chance to approach her she darts over to Lauren's body. "Oh my god, what's wrong with Lauren? Are you okay?"

Soon I see her eyes change from upset and sad to hunger, pure hunger in her eyes when she glimpses at Lauren's blood all over. "What's happening to me?" Rachel asks frantically. Just then, her eyes turn red when her fangs start to grow in size, about to feed.

I rush over to her and pull her away before she could start feeding on Lauren's dead body. She looks up at me with such pain, confusion, and sadness as we start walking out of the cave. "What's happening? Tell me everything and don't leave out a single detail!"

"I'll tell you everything, don't worry." Before we leave the cave for good, I glimpse back to Daniel and Lauren to see a couple tears drip off of Daniel's face and onto Lauren while whispering, "Please come back to me, I can't be without you Lauren. I love you, I'll do anything if you just wake up."


	19. Chapter 19

_Chapter 19: _

_Daniel's P.O.V_

It's been 2 hours; she should be waking up by now. For me, it only took one so I gave it an extra hour, why can't it be the same for here as it was for me? This further proves my theory that she wasn't going to waking up. There was only a slither of hope left in me now that she was going to wake up a vampire. I doubted it was going to happen, I felt her pulse myself and I couldn't hear her heart beating. My dead ex-girlfriend who I'm still in love with is dead in my bed. What a great happy ending; this _would_ only happen to me.

I turn off the T.V; clearly it wasn't helping with trying to get Lauren off of my mind. "Why'd you turn it off?" Shawn asks and I can't help but scowl at him. "Really? Is T.V that important to you? You're not worrying about Lauren or anything?"

"Of course I'm worried about her, but all we can do is sit here and wait. What else are we supposed to do?" He looks over at Rachel, "Well, besides keeping an eye on her." Rachel was just sitting there sipping through the tube of her blood bag staring off into space.

I roll my eyes and sarcastically say, "Yeah because she really needs to be watched." I sigh, just wanting the wait to be over. I walk over to the window, thinking that Lauren wasn't ever going to see the sun set again.

"She'll be okay Daniel; I feel it in my bones." I hear Rachel reassure me, interrupting me from the memories of Lauren. "I know that you feel like she isn't going to survive, but she is. She's a fighter; you and I both know that."

She was trying to make me feel better, but now I've just lost all hope so it wasn't going to do me much good. "I know that she is, but thanks for trying Rachel." My gaze attention draws to a Blue Morpho butterfly landing onto one of the red roses in the abundant garden. I concentrate on that butterfly and try distracting my mind from this whole day and situation.

"You know what?" Shawn starts, "Rachel and I are just going to go outside to give you some space. It looks like you need it." I hear two sets of footsteps walking, and not long after, I hear the door open and close shut. I'm finally alone with my thoughts, no interruptions.

I continue starring out to the lone butterfly out in the garden as I think of the first time I met Lauren. Things were so different back then; my original task was to kill her. Something wolf boy and I had in common, and will hopefully be the last thing we have in common. There was something I saw in her that was so different than anyone else I've met; she had me under some sort of spell that drew me to her. I never had that feeling with Jackie, the other only real relationship I've had.

Lauren showed me that even though I'm dead, you have to live everyday like it's your last and I was thankful enough to spend it with her. If only I had time with her before she ran off to her death sentence, I could have saved her like how she's saved me so many times. I would have told her how much she meant to me, and how much she still means to me. Maybe that would have changed her mind before she went off on her suicide mission. What was she thinking? If anything, that stunt she pulled would have made things worse if it had worked. I'm not angry with her; I was more anger with myself out of everyone. I should have seen this coming especially knowing Lauren where she didn't care if she lived or died, I could have put this whole thing to rest. But no, I had to be optimistic that she wouldn't have done anything stupid because of last night. It was too soon.

All I wanted to know if all of it was worth it for her, to leave behind all of these people who loved her. I needed to know if she was in peace, happy in the afterlife. I throw the glass of scotch laying in front of me across the room in anger; it was too soon for her to be dead. I longed to be in her place, she was too young for me to be wondering if she was happy up in heaven, or wherever she was in death. I lived my life, why couldn't it be me?

I cover my face with my hands to conceal the tears of frustration, aggravation, pain, and sadness that were about to unleash.

As I think that they were about to come, I become rigid as I hear a familiar angelic voice from behind me uttering my name, "Daniel?" And when I turn, sure enough, it was the girl who has been haunting my every thought for what felt like days. Lauren.

* * *

><p><em><span>Lauren's P.O.V<span>_

Tears start to stream down my face at the sight of Daniel. I'm the first to run over to Daniel, he was still in shock as I lock my arms around his neck. But he quickly recovers when I crush my lips to his. He automatically kisses me back with passion just like any kiss I have had with him. He caresses my face with his strong yet gentle hands.

I continue crying, I didn't know what else to do other than kiss Daniel with everything in me. I have to be the one to pull away for an intake of breath. He looks into my eyes with adoration, relief, surprise, and I can tell he's experiencing a lot of emotions right now. The tears don't stop as I inform him, "I thought that I wasn't going to find my way back but I did, it was a miracle. I was trapped in the darkness the entire time not knowing where I was or where I was going. I was so scared Daniel, I thought I lost you forever." I quickly wrap my arms around his torso with my face snuggled into his chest; trying to forget what I felt there. It was like I was trapped in a casket, dark, alone, and tight. I had no idea what was going on, and that was what scared me the most.

Daniel gently puts his arm around me while his hand went up and down my back, soothing me. He shushes me, I didn't realize I was sobbing, "It's alright now you're safe. Everything is going to be okay, I promise." He nestles his head on top of mine, "You had no idea how worried I was that I wasn't ever going to see you again. I was just as scared as you; I can't bare thinking of you not here with me." He tightens his embrace, as if he'll never let me go and it makes me feel safe like no one could hurt me. I feel invincible.

"I'm sorry," I whisper sadly. I pull away, out of his arms; he frowns slightly in confusion.

"For what?" Daniel inquires.

"For trying to sacrifice myself I guess. You're probably mad at me now for doing that," I say gravely, I didn't want him to be mad at me.

"I'm not mad at you, Lauren. I could never be mad at you, although, that was a pretty stupid move of you. I knew when I heard your voicemail that you were about to do something suicidal and something I would have disapproved of. So I drove around town looking for you, that's when I got a text from Shawn saying you guys were in the Oak Mills Cave. And you know the rest of the story. Shawn was saying before you woke up that you called Jackie. How did you even get Jackie's number anyway?"

I smile slyly and say playfully, "I got it when I called Rachel from your phone that night of the club. What can I say? I'm good at memorizing numbers."

"Oh," he simply says and frowns as he asks softly, "Why did you do it? Try to sacrifice yourself? Why would you do that? Especially to everyone who loves you."

I put my head down in shame and to avoid the look in his eyes; they screamed disappointment and it made me feel like shit. "I did it to protect the people I love, Daniel. Because let's face it, I was the one who was sentencing your death and everyone else's. So I decided not to hide anymore and let them win; if it was my life for the safety of everyone, I would choose the safety of my loved ones any day. Plus, I'm sure no one would have noticed if I was gone, nobody loves me the-"

"_I_ love you Lauren!" Daniel shouts slightly angry, "And I know for a fact, your mother and Rachel would notice your disappearance! Especially me! Don't be saying that especially when you have all the friends you need and a family who loves you. While I have no one besides you, and that isn't a bad thing, so don't tell me you have no one! I know you had the best intentions but the way you handled it was not the proper way to."

I frown at him, "So, let me ask you something. If the rules were reversed, would you do the same thing as I did?" I stare at him, waiting for an answer but when all I get is a speechless expression, I start to get irritated, "It's a yes or no question Daniel."

"Yes," he mutters under his breath looking a smidge bit angry.

After a few minutes of aggravated expressions, Daniel breaks the silence. He sighs as he gets rid of his angered façade and gives me a small smile, "Is it bad to say that I actually sort of miss our fights?" I laugh as he pulls me into his arms again, I don't stop him. "I don't want to fight; you just woke up from being dead after all. We should be celebrating the fact that you're alive. I'm sorry for my frustration; I didn't mean to take it out on you."

I smile against his chest. I was proud of him for admitting his wrongs, that doesn't happen very often. He was as stubborn as I was. "Its fine, you were scared and wanted to know why me. I get it." I really did, especially when I found out about my father, I felt every emotion possible. Probably not as strongly as Daniel's but they were still there.

Daniel puts me at arm's length so he can examine my face, and look into my eyes. He takes hold of my chin and tilts it upward, "I won't let anything happen to you. We'll get through this, I promise. I love you."

Before I can say anything, his lips are on mine. The kiss was short but sweet and passionate; it told me that he meant every word. I can feel my face blushing as he pulls me back into another embrace. I felt attuned to his body somehow.

That's when I question to myself if I was still human or not. I know for a fact that I died, but I know that I'm not human that was for sure. I no longer had my wound and the gash on my head was gone, so that would make me a vampire. Right? But how could I be blushing? You would have to have blood running through your veins, which vampires didn't have. Or was I a werewolf? Since I staked Jackie right before I died; Daniel said that was the only way for me to become one of them but did it still count even if I didn't complete the transition?

Before I could open my mouth to speak, I hear two voices shouting my name in shock and relief; Rachel and Shawn. Shawn stands a distance from, I'm assuming because he knew I was mad at him. And he was right. I smile wide as Rachel comes running up to me and holds me in one of her very tight hugs that I missed so much. But when I hug her back just as tightly, she winces and starts whining, "You can let go now."

I frown and as I do as she says, "What?"

"You were practically breaking my ribs," she looks over to Daniel, "I thought vampires couldn't get hurt?"

I stand there confused at first, but then I remember what happened with Jackie. She killed Rachel, before that happened; she fed Rachel her blood, making her a vampire. So, if Rachel was a vampire and I was able to hurt her, would that make me a vampire too?

Daniel stifles a laugh, "They can but they heal from it, Rachel, vampires aren't indestructible. Although, we love to think so."

I look to Daniel while pondering about vampires when I ask, "Does that make me a vampire too?"

He frowns, "No actually, I don't know what you are. You're definitely not human since I fed you my blood, you would become a vampire no matter what. But you're not one; you still have a heart beat." He looks over to Shawn for a moment and his attention is back on me in an instant, "Do you have any cravings for blood?"

I think, trying to focus on what my stomach and cravings want but they weren't craving food that was for sure. As I think about blood, I want it more and more, "Yes," I mutter, "Is there any?" I ask hopefully. It felt like I haven't eaten in a month, the urge was strong.

"Mmm," He mumbles, "I'll get you some in a minute. If you're not a vampire, clearly not a werewolf since you're craving blood, and you're not a human. What are you then?"

As everyone stands around me, contemplating the possibilities of what I was, I was just a complete mystery. Then I think of what Daniel said about how to become a werewolf, you had to kill a vampire. I did that, I killed Jackie just before I died. Daniel fed me my blood so would that cancel out the fact that I was becoming a werewolf? "Maybe I'm both," I whisper.

They all look at me like I was crazy, "Both a vampire and werewolf? Don't be ridiculous Lauren." Shawn talks down to me.

"I'm not," I declare as I glare at him, "Think about it, if I'm still managing to have a beating heart after I drank Daniel's blood. What else could I be? I must be part werewolf since I killed Jackie just before death. And the cravings for blood that I'm having don't go with being a werewolf." I look over to Daniel, waiting to see what he thinks of my theory.

He just stares at me with no expression until he nods, "I think you might be right. Nothing else explains it." He walks away and to the kitchen, he's back in an instant with a blood bag and tosses it to me. To my surprise, I quickly catch it in my hands, "Drink up. Plus you have quick reflexes and you almost broke Rachel like a twig. You're powerful, more powerful than all of us combined I bet." He gestures to Shawn, Rachel and himself.

I don't say anything as I feel something in my mouth growing. What was happening to me? At first it was painful and uncomfortable but it only took a second for the pain to stop. But when it did, my top lip curled back slightly due to instinct. It was like my body was taking over my mind, before I know it; my mouth is on the blood bag, quickly consuming its contents. The taste of it was sweet, it was addicting. I couldn't pull away from the sweet bitter smell of the blood.

I soon realize there was no blood left in the bag and my face falls, a little disappointed that it was gone so soon. "Can I have some more?" I quietly ask Daniel.

He smirks, "Later, you need to learn to have your blood cravings to subside. Since you're new to this, you might as well start now."

I throw the bag in his face before he could even react or try to avoid it. "Fine," I grumble. It was the last thing I wanted to do, to stop drinking blood. I was created for that purpose so why not fulfill it? I don't see how Daniel can control the urges, the blood tasted so good not to pass up.

Daniel laughs at my disappointment, "You'll be fine, I promise."

When he says 'I promise' I'm brought back to the moment when I was dying. I think of my death experience over and over again. It wasn't something I was going to forget, it was a scary. I don't know if it was because of my transition into a werewolf/vampire or if it was my injuries but I was in such pain. The only thing I could think of the whole time to help my mind off of it was to think of Daniel. Thinking of my death made me think of the whole reason why I died in the first place; the necklace. I look down at my collarbone, thinking that the necklace was draped there, but it was gone, "What happened to the bloodstone necklace?"

Shawn answers, "I gave it back to the Velknar pack…"

My eyes widen, "You did what? What the hell is wrong with you?" I was freaking out on the inside, if any one got their hands on the necklace, the vampire race would be doomed. That would mean the end of Rachel and Daniel. I wasn't about to let that happen.

I punch Shawn as hard as I could in his arm, he howls out in pain as I hear a crunching noise. I stiffen, forgetting the fact that I was stronger than him. Shawn has an expression on his face that makes me feel so guilty; he looked like he was in such pain. I gasp, surprised at myself that I did that, "Oh my gosh Shawn, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hit you that hard."

He winces as he struggles to say, "I'll be fine, plus I'll heal eventually." He walks over and sits on the couch, "Besides, I guess I deserved that."

I almost forgot about him sacrificing me to the Velknar pack, I scowl at him. "Yeah, you do deserve it."

Shawn just sighs in response, not knowing what to say. "I should probably apologize to you about that, about everything that's happened."

"Yeah, you should." I look over to Daniel who is glaring at Shawn with anger in his eyes, "We could have avoided this whole conflict if it wasn't for you working for Jackie. Now, not only do we have to worry about the Velknar pack coming back once they find out the necklace is a dud, but we have to worry about Lauren _and_ Rachel controlling their bloodlust and not having the whole town drained of blood."

I thought Shawn wouldn't have said anything to this and would have kept it to himself but I was wrong. He gets up and gets into Daniel's face, "Hey, it's your fault to begin with. If it wasn't for you revealing her location a long time ago, no one would be trying to sacrifice her and she would have a better life for herself."

I look down to Daniel's fists that were trembling, trying not to hit Shawn with all of his strength. Before anything could happen, I immediately get in between the two angered men, "Don't do it," I plead Daniel, "He's not worth it, and besides either of you couldn't control what happened with me. It was your jobs, if you didn't do it, you probably would have been killed. In a way, I'm glad for this."

I give Daniel a warm smile to reassure him that I was alright, and that I was happy minus the killing part. I know that I wouldn't have chosen this life for myself but if it meant being with Daniel and Rachel forever, I would gladly take it. "Please," I whisper to him.

His eyes soften at the sight of my smile and lets his body relax. Without warning, he lifts me up and kisses my lips tenderly and hungrily. On instinct, I wrap my arms around the back of his neck and my legs around his hips, trying to be careful to not crush him with my newly found strength.

I take a glance towards Shawn and Rachel to see they were gone, just like that; probably giving us a moment alone together. Daniel doesn't waste any time taking us to his room.

But all I could think about now was that the love of my life was in front of me, we survived this time. What if the packs came back looking for me or worse try to kill Daniel or Rachel? But now I could fight back, I wasn't that helpless girl anymore. I knew my new body was going to take some getting used to but I knew in my heart that I was going to protect my friends and family with everything in me, no matter what they threw at me. I was going to fight, even if it meant me being killed.


End file.
